Just something I thought last night. Like, instead of planting charges to fissures to crack asteroids, we'd have derelict spacecrafts (megaships/carriers/etc) and abandoned outposts to scan and locate weak spots on the hull, bulkheads and so on. Then blow those up to gain access to whatever there might be inside. But just like in core mining, we'd have to be careful with the charges to create a controlled detonation. Too much force and the whole thing just blows up to your face.
What the salvage would be then? And what would be the salvage equivalent of a mother lode and should there be one? I don't really know. This isn't a fully fledged mechanic or even a fully fledged concept, just an idea that crossed my mind I thought was interesting. And I guess not so much about what to find but how to find.
But to elaborate little further just for the heck of it.. Maybe we'd find them with the FSS, then use pulse wave scanner (an industrial variant, of course) to scan the ships/stations, fire prospector, blow a hole to the hull and collect. But unlike 'roids I think ships and outposts could have several possible locations to blow up; loading bays, storage areas, processing plants, the usual places you'd expect to find on such installations. And outposts could be found further in deep space as well. In a way it would make sense; companies expand too far, too aggressively, a promising moon or ring turns out to be a bust, no way to negate the expenses, company goes belly up and all the assets are left behind to slowly decay out of existence. Until a salvage ship happens upon them.
Maybe there could be some new type of "bulk scraps" to collect, among other things? Electrical components, hull parts and what not. You could then sell these to salvage traders on stations and they'd pay according to what they need or are more interested in.
