Morning plop101,
I could see it working. You have the 3dT hold, good for the 2.5dT of Plascrete and that leaves 0.5dT for the beacon shack, a small building containing the basic electronics and a small powerplant and fuel tank. Maybe with the option for a larger fuel tank, using some of the Plascrete to form it under the pad.
And you swap out the air-raft for a more useful small earth mover to push and carry stuff around, and install a mining laser in the turret to do the bulk of terrain leveling and blasting.
Sounds like a good job for those Detached Duty jobs. Either building a basic pad or doing maintenance on those already out there.
Swapping out the beacon shack for a few modules (maybe 5 repairs) to upgrade/replace the electronics and the Plascrete is used for patching (again 5 repairs).
So you get a list of 5 pads to visit and inspect and make any needed repairs. Keeping the Scout busy for several months. Figure a couple weeks per pad, working solo, half that with help.
Or you get to go out and put down a whloe new pad*. That should take maybe 10 weeks, again half with help.
* not neccessarily a new location, the old one could have been obliterated by some disaster (natural or other), which may be a good adventure hook
None of this is including travel time of course, or in the field complications
And of course you're going to have to stuff the unused staterooms with life support and supplies for the extended mission* or arrange drops, yet another good assignment for those DD boys and girls. I always figured they should be exploited, er, kept more involved
* the 4 staterooms would give you up to 16 person weeks if fully charged (life support x16, paid for by the Service of course). So a crew of 1 would have 6 weeks of travel and 10 weeks of work. A crew of two could do the work in 5 weeks leaving them 3 weeks of travel time. The empty stateroom volume would give you room (about 3dT at 1dT per unoccupied stateroom) for some other gear and/or more life support/supplies.
