When the Terran Hegemony first created the IndustrialMech, they were still exploring new environments. The borders of what is now known as the Inner Sphere were still in flux, with many worlds we now know still uninhabited. The basic ExplorerMech was one of their first creations, far more mobile than standard vehicles. The humanoid construction allowed it to travel in terrain that even the most mobile vehicles could not, environmental sealing made it safe in even the harshest environments, and jump jets allowed it to cross what little terrain it couldn't walk in and also made it capable of moving between asteroids or in other null-gee environments. It could, in short, explore any of the still-unknown worlds and decide which would be best for the colonization programs to come.
         A multi-spectrum search light and a basic laser give it limited ability of self defense, though the laser is usually used as a probing tool to determine the composition of whatever material it is aimed at. A small living/sleeping area in the right torso can "pop out" while the ExplorerMech is stopped, turning it into a very basic living/sleeping/dining room where the two crewmen can enjoy a sit-down meal and whatever vids are stored on the ExplorerMech's computers. While moving, the roomy head of the ExplorerMech can easily carry both crewmen, the pilot and the scientist that are most often assigned to an ExplorerMech.
         After the creation of the Star League, the remaining ExplorerMechs were sent out to the Periphery, searching new sectors of space, and the production of both basic, and some specialty, ExplorerMechs expanded. Never truly mass produced though, the ExplorerMechs were never numerous, and the Successions Wars were not kind to their surviving numbers. Most of the remaining ExplorerMechs belong to ComStar's Explorer Corps, with the next largest collections belonging to Interstellar Expeditions and the Taurian Concordat's Far Lookers. As the three organizations often cooperate, and in fact share some members between them, the exact numbers in use by them is in question. Other ExplorerMechs, in various states of repair, belong to some of the other realms, and are mainly used to navigate through regions that were nuked during the Succession Wars or the Word of Blake Jihad, looking for any remnants of technology that may remain in those hazardous areas.