I'm glad to see you read through it.
The optical mast idea would require upscaling the in game environment, so I knew it was a bit ahead of your current focus. Also it would only be extended/deployed if the top-down data feed was disrupted, including the backup drone feed. I thought it would mix up the game experience and function as a difficulty challenge for an interval of a mission. Then the top-down image would be restored.
As for grabbing supplies I was thinking of a little more animation detail, the mech grabs, it removes the contents storing them internally, and then discards the empty container.