After gaining access to the 3.5 PTU, I was able to buy a Prospector on Levski and go try out mining. Every other ship in the game is available to spawn when you load into the PTU except the Prospector, which was kind of annoying. Luckily, with the 5 million in funds they give you I could but one. The ship itself is pretty great, but I ended up crashing a few times as I am still getting used to the new throttle settings on the flight model. Mining also was bugged where scanning wasn't identifying the makeup of the rocks, the power level coloring wasn't working, and lately the mining laser was misaligned where it doesn't point where you aim. Despite all this, mining seemed pretty interesting as I liked the freedom of just jumping over to a planet and getting to work. I am still working on revamping my keybinds and getting used to the new flight model, however, I would suggest that anyone who did not have a chance to try out mining before (like me) jump in the PTU and give it a go. This way you can know the basics when things go live.