Possibly extend the range of the HE mining beam by only 5-10m so you still need to have a small distance as designed. But without having to shove your ship up against (and sometimes inside) the asteroid.

I think it was made like that on purpose.

It was - the HE beam acts as a cooling beam and severely reduces the heating rate. If anything the HDs should be reduced from 75 at the same time. At any rate HE and such are "expert" beams meant for experianced miners. 25 m is plenty of range and helps keep mining interesting :D

Not everything in the verse is meant to be easily mined

-1

-1 You must become one with the roid!

This falls in the "It's not broken, don't fix it" category, IMHO.