Asteroid Mining Vehicle

Several companies and organizations, including NASA, offer different development methods. Back in 2013, the agency began implementing a project for the delivery of celestial bodies in the vicinity of the Earth (Asteroid Retrieval Mission). Within the framework of the project, it is proposed to send an automatic station to the asteroid (this is a pilot project, therefore it is supposed to work with a single object), which will be able to capture the object using a special device. After the capture, the asteroid is planned to be delivered to the lunar orbit for further study. NASA astronauts even undergo training at the Lyndon Johnson Center, practicing techniques for exiting the Orion capsule in prototype asteroid suits and mining asteroid rock samples.

1)

A craft should be able to anchor itself to a small asteroid with a rocket-powered harpoon, although this might be dangerous if the asteroid is spinning too much (you would probably want to target the pole, assuming it is not precessing too much). Landing would then be a relatively simple matter of winding the harpoon cable. If the asteroid is too small for a harpoon, it might be better to just snare it in a net. Larger asteroids with significant gravity, or with a sufficiently flat surface (this would be more like a docking manoeuvre than a landing), would be approached the same way we landed on the moon.

There are a number of options for movement, if necessary. The most reliable might actually be grasping and crawling with a set of manipulator arms fitted with sharp claws. The manipulator arms could be fitted with wheels or tracks for faster movement. Thruster driven hops, or even relaunch and landing, would be the option for large distances.

2)
I would suggest an assortment of drills and cutting disks, with a very high speed rotary tool. The rotary tool will need a countre-rotation mechanism. I suggest a free-floating electromagnetic driver that rotates in the opposite direction as it is applying force to drive the shaft. The shaft and countre-rotation mechanism would free-float in the fixed housing.

Lasers might be useful for softening the material to be drilled, and perhaps for preliminary cutting. Industrial drills used for oil drilling (except with four countre-rotating cutting heads) and tunnel borers might alsobe useful options. The probe itself might be a borer, with smaller deployable drills inset along the perimetre.

4-5)
Ideally, separation and initial processing would be performed on site. These capabilities should either be built into the mining probe, or the mining probe should be accompanied by a processing probe (or installation). If not performed on-site, there should be local hub stations.