@Erich_L said:
When I imagine any pointy or rounded shape at the front my brain gets stuck- specifically because I don't want to model a handful of ... tip. I want to model lego pieces.
Well, most actual aircraft have a flat front, to provide unobstructed radar view. The rounded or pointy part is just a plastic radome to cover the antennae.
Another thing to consider is that real asteroids are often very loosely held together heaps of debris. Doing anything to one could release a cloud of rock and dust that would immediately bounce off your spacecraft, and produce an instant flight hazard in a large volume.
Asteroid miners might have some way of covering the entire body with a big, iron-foil bag, to keep it all contained. Or they might be designed like bullets and shoot themselves into the harder core. Or just fire phasers at the thing until only the core is left, then approach. You could use a solar sail as a parabolic mirror to melt the asteroid, then siphon out the stuff you want. You could use super-conducting magnets to pull out metals, or toss the whole thing down to the surface of the moon or mars, where the actual mining is done.
If I were doing it, I'd probably go with the shell approach, and just let the player plug modules in. Lego blocks makes it seem like every possible component is the same volume. Maybe spacecraft manufacturers of the future will do like cpu and auto makers are doing now -- build everything into the ship, but you have to buy a code to enable the parts. Then your space pirates are pirates in both senses of the word.
