How do you mine gas?

[ChillAsIce]

I don't know how to mine gas. I know how to order my ships to mine gas. I even rode as a passenger on one my gas ships as it went about its business. I couldn't tell what it was doing; it looked like it was traveling around randomly. What am I missing?

[Triu]

As far as I'm aware, you can't mine manually. The NPC scoops up gas slowly, and drones help to speed things up, but only they can do it.