Alien Artifacts

Prospector reinforces the idea that Ancient Aliens Are Better Than You. This only makes sense; would you really risk life and limb against treacherous environments and hostile life forms to get your hands on some cardboard body armor?

Every now and then, your awayteam will find an alien artifact, and your Science Officer will attempt to identify it. Even a Rank 6 Science Officer can fail; it's a bit tricky. If you can't identify an artifact, you can sell it at any space station's corporate office for several thousand credits (and you might as well, because you never get a second chance to identify an artifact).

If you already have an artifact and you find a duplicate, you get another roll on the artifact table. If it is still a duplicate it it will automatically be "unidentifiable," so you get the cash for it instead of carrying around 6 useless duplicate Alien Scanners. Once you have a supremely powerful ship and awayteam, it seems like a good 80% or so of the alien artifacts you find are unidentifiable, and the rest are cryo tanks or disintegrator cannons.

Neat alien stuff that doesn't require identification
See the Equipment page.

Adaptive bodyarmor has a defense rating of 10, which is one better than layered force fields.

Hand-held Disintegrators do 1.2 damage, at +2 accuracy and a range of 6, making it 33% more damaging than a plasma rifle, with the highest accuracy for any (non-modified) weapon.

Artifacts that your Science Officer has to puzzle out
Interestingly enough, there is no Class 6 Shield artifact.
 * Air recycler - Cuts oxygen consuption by about a third. (On a no-atmosphere planet, walking one space consumes 2 oxygen if inspecting, or 1 oxygen if not.)
 * Cloaking Device - Gives away-team camouflage.
 * Cyro Chambers - Each time you find these, there will be 1-6 chambers. Each chamber increases your crew capacity by one. No known cap.
 * Disintegrator - The most powerful ship-mounted weapon, takes up 1 ship weapon slot as normal. It has a range of 18, does 6 damage, and does not use ammunition. This thing is fantastic.
 * Engine - Level 6 Engine.
 * Fuel System - Halves fuel consumption.
 * Sensors - Level 6 Sensors.
 * Scanner - Reveals most lifeforms on the map of the planet. Does not show every single one, just most of them.
 * Teleportation Device - Allows away team to do a short teleport, has a cooldown after use. Also acts as a jetpack with unlimited fuel (so you can still "emergency jump").
 * Wormhole Navigation Device - When entering a wormhole, you may choose which wormhole to exit from (i.e., any wormhole on the map).
 * Wormhole Shield - Protects against wormhole damage

Artifacts that don't appear on your alien artifacts screen

 * Nanobot Factory - Heals wounds your away team has sustained like a doctor, and STACKS with the doctor's healing. The nanobot factory might even work faster than a doctor. With a large enough away team, you are almost invincible.
 * Science AI
 * Medical AI
 * Gunner AI - Reduces chance to miss
 * Pilot AI - Allows you to move across mountains without jetpacks.
 * Data Crystals - Gives you specific information on a star system.
 * Ancient Alien Bomb - The most powerful land based explosive in the game. Press d to deploy!