Space mining

The Rage of the Wookiees expansion pack added an exciting feature to the Jump to Lightspeed space scene: asteroid mining! Using special mining equipment, pilots can gather resources from dozens of asteroids scattered throughout space, selling their gatherings to merchant outposts or player crafters. Crafters can then use the materials to make special space equipment, including the "heavy" light-mass ships and more mining equipment.

Players receive their first mining equipment from the Corellian Engineering Corporation's quests on Kashyyyk. The corporation will give qualified pilots their very own Y-8 Mining Ship deed for helping with a variety of tasks. Pilots can continue to use the equipment they receive from the corporation to do their mining, or they can upgrade by visiting a friendly neighborhood Shipwright.

Getting Started
There are two required pieces of equipment that any pilot will need in order to mine asteroids: one or more mining lasers and a single cargo hold. If your ship has the space, you should also equip a tractor beam, which will greatly increase your mining efficiency. Every starship has a hardpoint for a single cargo hold, but mining lasers and tractor beams must be installed in weapon hardpoints. You will likely find the best mining ships are those with the most weapon slots, which will allow the greatest number of mining lasers and tractor beams.

Mining entrepreneurs will receive their first cargo holds, mining lasers and tractor beams from the Corellian Engineering Corporation. However, Shipwrights can craft far superior equipment than what the CEC can spare, so established pilots should seek one out for higher mining efficiency. All mining equipment schematics require asteroid resources, which you may be asked to help acquire.

Mining Process
Mining can be broken into seven phases:
 * 1) Find an asteroid to mine.
 * 2) Break off a large asteroid chunk.
 * 3) Pursue and destroy the large chunk.
 * 4) Collect small asteroid chunks.
 * 5) Repeat steps 2-4 until cargo hold is full.
 * 6) Periodically fight off asteroid bandits.
 * 7) Sell asteroids to a space station or land and unload them.

Find an asteroid
Using the list below, locate an asteroid of the type you'd like to mine. Simply travel there! While you're inbound, you should run Weapon Overload 3; this will increase your mining laser damage, which will not only make mining go faster but also provide better protection against bandits.

Break off an asteroid chunk
Upon reaching the asteroid, immediately open fire with your mining lasers. Regular weapons will do nothing to the asteroid; you must use any of the four models of mining laser. Once you have done enough damage to the asteroid, it will spawn an asteroid chunk that will slowly move away from the main asteroid.

Destroy asteroid chunk
Follow the asteroid chunk and repeatedly hit it with your mining lasers. It will move steadily away from the main asteroid, so you should pursue and destroy it as soon as possible to minimize your travel time.

Collect small chunks
Destroying the large asteroid chunk will spawn several smaller chunks that will quickly move away from your ship. You have two choices at this point: destroy the small chunks, or use your tractor beam to pull the chunks to your ship. Either choice will place asteroid resources into your cargo hold, but using your tractor beam will grant a far greater number.

To use your tractor beam, make sure to bind a key to "Fire tractor beam" in your keymap. Fire the beam at a small chunk and watch as the chunk is pulled towards your ship. It will be placed in your cargo hold as soon as it touches your ship.

Another way is to open the options menu and bind a key command to the 'Toggle Tractor Beam' command. This allows you to permanently toggle on or off your tractor beam, which allows for much easier collection of small chunks.

Repeat process
Repeat steps two through four until your cargo hold is full. You will see an update on your cargo hold's capacity level each time you destroy or tractor a small asteroid chunk.

Fight off asteroid bandits
While mining, asteroid bandits will occasionally spawn to harass your ship. They will always be a tier level appropriate to the system you're in. You are never required to destroy the bandits, but they will continually harass you until you take care of them.

Unload cargo hold
Once your hold is full, you can either sell your asteroids to an NPC space station or land your ship and unload them to your inventory. To unload your ship, access its radial menu from your datapad after you have landed it. The asteroids will be placed in a standard resource container in your inventory.

Asteroid Locations
All asteroids appear in your datapad under POI.
 * Acid: Dantooine System x2
 * Carbonaceous: Naboo System x2
 * Crystal: Dathomir System x3
 * Cyanomethanic: Yavin System x3
 * Diamond: Kessel System x3 - Don’t show in datapad.
 * Ice: Endor System x3
 * Iron: Corellian System x1, Tatooine System x5
 * Methane: Dantooine System x2
 * Obsidian: Kashyyyk System (Lok) x3
 * Organometallic: Kashyyyk System (Lok) x2
 * Petrochemical: Yavin System x2
 * Silicaceous: Corellian System x4
 * Sulfuric: Naboo System x3

Mining Stations
Mining stations in most sectors will purchase asteroids from you mid-flight. Prices vary from station to station, but will almost assuredly never match what a Shipwright will be willing to pay. Stations can be useful for selling off excess if you have a limited cargo hold, however; if you're planning on collecting 500 obsidian and acidic asteroid with a 1000 cargo hold but accidently mined 540 obsidian, simply sell 40 units to a station to save having to land and make another trip.
 * Corellia: CorSec Outpost (-172, -5281, -6733)
 * Dantooine: RSF Outpost (-7483, 636, 92)
 * Dathomir: Mining Outpost (-2779, -4295, 5217)
 * Endor: RSF Outpost (959, -846, 2598)
 * Lok: Trade Federation Outpost (-1692, -4270, -5411)
 * Naboo: Trade Federation Outpost (2028, -5958, -7040)
 * Tatooine: Mining Outpost
 * Yavin: Mining Outpost (6544, -6419, -6493)

Mining lasers

 * Elite Mining Laser - Y-8 only
 * Mark I Mining Laser
 * Mark II Mining Laser
 * Mark III Mining Laser

Cargo holds

 * Small Cargo Hold - Starfighter
 * Small Cargo Hold - POB only
 * Small Cargo Hold - Y-8 only
 * Medium Cargo Hold - Starfighter
 * Medium Cargo Hold - POB only
 * Medium Cargo Hold - Y-8 only
 * Large Cargo Hold - Starfighter
 * Large Cargo Hold - POB only
 * Large Cargo Hold - Y-8 only

Other

 * Tractor Beam

Reference

 * Red-Dwarf Idiot's Guide to Space Mining
 * Mining Made Easy! Seriously!