I totally agree with Ryan envision, not only make the whole process engaging for different players at the same time, but also is expandable.
For example the compacted ship chunks can be updated to be raw material that can be sold as is (for a very low income) or taked to a refinery to be processed so you can retrieve the more valuable materials like titanium, copper, aluminium etc... basically following the same logic of the actual mining loop.
Secondary the whole waring of potential danger can be expanded into other aspect other then the chopping thing (that could became a requirement and not an options): like siphoning the fuel out of a ship, removing the powerplant and the shield generator or taking care of missiles/torpedo or other dangerous cargo in the ship, basically having players involved in the salvaging of a ship form the very bottom (retrieving valuable material) to the top (the hull salvage).