How to harvest sodium?

[Mr.Orange]

So I'm on my fifth life so far, and I look forward to doing something else besides, you know, dying on the starter planet.

I repair my scanner. I get some carbon to power the scanner. I find the sodium. How do I harvest the sodium? The mining laser doesn't do it. Standing on it and hopping up and down doesn't do it. The yellow flowers sit there and stare at me while my suit shuts down and I die. Rinse, repeat.

[Kosevich]

Press and hold "E"

[Kosevich]

But my advice is to forget about sodium. Find nearest cave and harvest some cobolt + ferrite. It will allow you to create ion batteries. Much easier way to restore your hazard protection.
And if you out of power for mining laser you can always gather resources but hitting it with your arms. Just press "Q".

[Mr.Orange]

Yes, hitting E did the trick, but I had to dance around the sodium a bit to get it to put up the E long enough for me to hit the E key.

I wasted a couple lives looking for caves in the time that the game let me live. I didn't find any. But I'll be on the lookout for cobalt and ferrite next time.

Thank you both for the help!