Emptying planets of fuel is tedious at the end

When there is but little fuel left on a planet, an approach to continuously mine at 1km deep is most efficient, since 1H gives 2Fuel. It is a tedious task and destroys the fun of otherwise great game.

I mine at 10km with an ultraprobe and get all the fuel at once. Unless there isn't much fuel, it's more efficient that way. It has a high chance of destroying your ultraprobe, but as long as you have the schematics and mats to rebuild it, it doesn't matter.