4 ms·
While armor is indeed much harder in space, it is not impossible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipple_shield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipple_shield Wh
by gorgoiler 19d ago
While armor is indeed much harder in space, it is not impossible:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipple_shield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipple_shield
Whipple shields use spaced plates to disperse the impact of a projectile on the first plate over a larger area on the second plate, and so on and so forth over four or five plates such that the final plate is not penetrated.
My father worked on high velocity impact ballistics and has some very nice multiple exposure results. The light gas guns used to propel the test cubes are just as interesting as the shields themselves.
- notahacker 19d agoWhipple Shields are a very important part of protecting things like the ISS, but are optimized more for chance high velocity impacts with tiny bits of debris than an adversary's targeted projectile or their robotic arm grappler, or indeed non-kinetic weapons like directed energy or EMPs which is probably the capability the US intends to imply here.
- freebsd_lovefes 19d agoYou know nothing about space armor until you manage to shoot down Amarr's dreadnought in Eve Online, tyvm.
- LargoLasskhyfv 19d agoNew development in sight: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-eggshells-aluminum-material-significant-space.html https://phys.org/news/2026-09-eggshells-aluminum-material-si...
- mapt 18d agoThey're great for a 20mm x 5mm x 0.3mm fleck of paint or vacuum insulation weighing 30mg, not so much for a 10mm hex nut weighing 11g. Armor can protect you against the smallest debris which post the least risk and decay the fastest. Everything else, not so much. A question for you though - does that insulation vaporizing itself inside a whipple shield generate secondary debris comprised of the whipple shield and condensed aluminum droplets??