I was just wondering whether mining and exploration vessels owned by registered corporations/mining groups etc. Would be allowed to use nuclear warheads in mining operations? These would not be the TNE standard nuclear detonation types but conventional nuclear warheads either emplaced or fired using a missile into a small asteroid for example.
KE missiles or a ships laser I think could also be used to hit an asteroid then the ships sensors could read off the "rocks" composition. NASA did something similar when they impacted a probe on a small asteroid.
Incidentally if someone wants to metricate it GURPS Vehicle expansion 2 has a couple of possible ore processors in the Fuel Transfer and Processing section.
Antony