Mobile utility lunar excavator

The Mobile Utility Lunar Excavator (MULE) is an experimental terran mining robot. It is still in the prototype stage and has a limited battery life.

Game Unit
MULEs are summoned by the orbital command's Calldown: MULE ability. Each drop pod contains one MULE. A MULE takes about three times longer to finish mining a load than an SCV, but retrieves 30 minerals per load (42 per high yield patch), meaning that it collects minerals approximately twice as quickly as an SCV (SCVs retrieve 5 minerals per load). A MULE and an SCV may mine from the same mineral patch simultaneously.

A MULE summoned directly onto a mineral patch will harvest 270 minerals (or 378 minerals on a high-yield patch) before running out of energy.

Development
The MULE's attack was removed by April 2009. Its repair ability was also removed by April 2009 but later reinstated.

MULEs carried three times more minerals than SCVs.

Trivia

 * A mule is an eponymous beast of burden and the name been applied to other objects with similar aspirations.
 * The MULE's portrait bears similarity to HAL 9000.