Using the collector on the rescue ship?

So I have been mining for many hours just to notice I can barely build anything. I have been mining manually: parking my ship above an ore type to generate gravity, drill a ton of ore and then collect it with an empty inventory by hand.

I just noticed I have a collector on board of my ship but I am unable to locate it and use it. I have read it needs to be within 2m distance of an item to collect it. So how do I make use of this? Since all the ore I drill is inside a hole it is kinda hard to maneuver the collector into place. So can I use the collector to mine more efficient?