Salvage
When ships explode they leave clouds of debris behind. These clouds of debris can be salvaged for scrap metal and other useful items, which can then be sold at the shop. The clouds of debris will appear in your ship's scanners, like any other object. You need to be within 100 to perform a salvage operation.
Scrap metal can be "jettison"ed into space to make room for more scrap. If you jettison something, it is forever lost.
At level 11, pilots learn advanced salvage techniques that allow them to collect salvage from up to 200 away, and they may also use <salvage sweep> to automatically salvage all debris within their range.
Finally, pilots are able to be more delicate with their salvage operations at level 15, allowing them to keep certain advanced materials intact during salvage operations.