Cargo Ships

Ships

The following cargo ships may be randomly spawned (as of Update_01.023.000)

Cargo Ship	Class	Mass (Kg)	Booby Trapped	Anti Ship Defence	Anti Personnel Defence	Game Version
Private Sail	Private	72 447	No	none	none	01.030.000
Business Shipment	Private	184 972	No	none	none	01.030.000
Commercial Freighter	Private	4639 395	No	3x GT	none	01.030.000
Mining Carriage	Mining	266 084	No	1x GT	none	01.030.000
Mining Transport	Mining	401 953	No	2x GT	1x IT	01.031.000
Mining Hauler	Mining	1 540 908	No	4x GT 2x MT	2x IT	01.030.000
Military Escort	Military	350 048	No	2x GT 2x MT	none	01.030.000
Military Minelayer	Military	1 637 990	Yes	5x GT 2x MT	none	01.030.000
Military Transporter	Military	5 578 454	Yes	5x GT 3x MT	5x IT	01.030.000

Defences

Cargo ships may be booby trapped in the following ways

Booby Trapped (thruster damage)

Cargo ships are sailing through space at a constant speed, so their dampeners are switched off. If thrust is requested in a particular direction (usually reverse), a thruster may be hidden inside the ship to disable it (destroy all reactors), or even detonate a warhead.

Defuse Tactic

Due to the orientation of the truster trap it works only in one direction. So turn the ship around, activate the inertia dampener and you good to search for the thruster.

Anti Ship Defence

Gatling Turrets, or Missile Turrets may be placed around the ship to defend it against, well, you.
As of v1.31 (list), the Gatling Turrets and Missile Turrets are functioning and will shoot decoy blocks, meteors or anything that moves faster than 3m/s, including you.

Distraction Tactic

The turrets will target even chunks of raw materials, if they are moving with more than 3m/s. If you shower the target-ship with superfluous material (like stones) the turrets will be distracted and you can approach quite safely. When you have reached the ship, try to access a terminal and turn the turrets off.

Playing dead Tactic

As turrets will only target objects moving with more than 3m/s, you can place yourself on the exact path of the cargo. While maneuvering in order to be in front of the cargo, you should stay at a minimal distance of about 600m. Once you are correctly facing the ship, activate inertia dampeners and you can then wait for its arrival until it bumps you. You should aim your boarding to a part of the cargo which is plane(the movement of the cargo should keep you stuck on its surface) and out of range of any turret(since the contact with the cargo will induce your speed to be the same than the cargo's speed). The final part consists in grinding your way to the cockpit, without forgetting about interior turrets!

Anti Personnel Defence

Interior Turrets may be found inside the ship to defend it against personnel.
As of v1.31 (list), the Interior Turrets are functioning and will shoot decoy blocks, meteors or anything that moves faster than 3m/s, including you.

Avoidance Tactic

Try to reach a terminal which isn't in the shooting range of the turret. Access it and turn of the offending turrets.