A small, nimble ship equipped with advanced sensors to detect mineral deposits in asteroid fields with being capable of rapid maneuvering to avoid impact with floating rocks, the AEA-500 is a prospector’s best friend. While not capable of practical mineral extraction, prospectors value the ship for its speed and maneuverability, able to zip around asteroid fields and identify material deposits quickly and direct heavier extractor ships to the most valuable lodes efficiently. Built on a light, oblong hull, the ship provides the two crew with excellent visibility from its stepped cockpits. The pilot sits in the rear, elevated cockpit, with a reinforced transparent canopy providing almost a full three hundred sixty degree view enabling him to quickly see incoming asteroids and assess the best way to avoid them. The dig engineer sits in the forward cockpit, with access to the ship’s mining sensors, allowing him to focus fully on the sensor input data, as well as to operate the ships three lasers, which are typically only used to blast small asteroids in the flight path, or to clear away surface rock and expose mineral deposits. Once valuable deposits are identified, the dig engineer will tag the deposit with a radio beacon to signal the deposit's presence to the extractor ships.

The AEA-500 is designed to be launched from a mothership, either individually or in small groups, to quickly map deposits in asteroid fields and enable company planners to produce the most efficient resource extraction plan before directing the mining ships in to extract the minerals. Pilots of these small ships tend to be an adventurous bunch, happy to dodge asteroids all day while the dig engineers in the front analyse sensor readings and provide direction. Should hostile bandits or pirates be encountered, the ship’s moderately powerful sublight engines can accelerate the ship quickly, and the thrust vectoring engine outlets allows for excellent maneuverability in the tight confines of asteroid fields. While not optimized for combat, the AEA-500s three heavy lasers do provide a good punch against fighter sized targets, and some thrifty mining operations use them in anti-bandit patrol roles once the main prospecting role is completed.