How to Survive a Space Battle (Shields, Armor, Point Defence)

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Spacedock delves into the various means of surviving a space battle in this week’s thought piece.

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33 thoughts on “How to Survive a Space Battle (Shields, Armor, Point Defence)”

  5. Glossing over "don't be there" feels a bit short sighted. "Don't be there encompasses a major category of avoidance.

    You don't need most of the rest of the onion if your strategy entails dropping in out of hyperspace, unleashing an entire battleship's worth of missiles at once, then immediately jumping away again before the enemy can respond. This is the idea of don't be there. You can't take damage if you are no longer in the system you attacked.

    This is different from mobility as traditional evasion or out maneuvering can be countered by good shooting and tracking. But if you arent there by the time your attack has hit/been detected, it doesnt much matter how good your opponent's tracking systems are

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  10. Hey Spacedock,

    I'm creating a sci-fi world of my own. I have to say, your channel has been a great resource in terms of sci-fi world creation.

    Please keep these contents up, and know that you are integral in creating the next generation of sci-fi worlds.

    Reply

  12. I dont think there are shields in real on spaceships. I think they have more like something like earth a magnetic field to deflect asteroids and radiation.
    I think it would be more be like stealth and submarine fighting.

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  13. I often see the Andromeda Ascendant from Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda left out of these discussions, which saddens me.
    Andromeda's doesn't have the energy shielding tropes like many sci-fi shows.
    It does have layers and multiple practical solutions.
    It has sensor/combat drones that increase the sensor range, attack distant targets, create false sensor data to the enemy vessels, and intercept incoming missles/ordinance.
    Then they have battle blades that extend over outer zone like a knights shield. Between the blades are a webbing of cables that shred some missles/ordinance or cause them to explode. Once they are in pieces the material is redirected away from the ship (or slowed) by antigrave fields.
    Next is some reactive armor on the actual hull, which detonates incoming munitions.
    After that the hull itself is lightly armored. Strong enough to deal with small munitions, shrapnel, some energy weapons, but thin enough that when faster or bigger items hit they pass through without sending shockwaves across the hull or through the superstructure (which is also designed for pass-through).
    Many outer compartments along the inside of the hull are decompressed creating a vacuum in those areas. If munitions penetrate, the is no air to compress, ignite, etc..
    Objects like smaller MAC rounds go in one side and out the other making a small hole compared to big explosive holes, and creates light damage in a straight line (easier to repair) instead of damage that radiates outwards in multiple directions.
    And to finish it off, Andromeda has repair drones & nanites that are effecting repairs during the fight.
    Oh and it can maneuver like a space fighter, making it incredibly agile and hard to hit.

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  21. 6:10 Angling the armour requires a larger sheet to give the same thickness for the same area.

    The rhomb area formula tells us that the end mass of armour for a given thickness & height will always be the same, regardless of angle.
    Angled armour INSTEAD works by (oversimplified) bouncing the shot away.

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  26. Electronic Warfare would be anazing, I love how engineers in The Expanse run EW in combat. Really lets all the roles in a bridge crew do their thing actively in combat

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  32. There is also an item that I rarely see in science fiction and can improve the survivability of the crew, is the intra-vehicular suit so if there is an air leak or a fire the crew wont die.

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  33. Another aspect of the final layer is repair/recovery. The various Enterprises show how valuable having an extremely competent repair crew is and having systems be tolerant to patch jobs.

    Reply

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