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[tryrar]

Ok guys, backcheck me on this ship armor composition: A solid hexplate shell around the ship(around20-30mm thick) backed by 40mm thick xenohex squares/hexagons/whatever tesselated shape held together by a backing of 30mm think sharkplate. I know using hexes held together by a lesser material weakens its unbreakability, but hopefully this arrangement would allow some flex and prevent the mountings being damaged by the xenoplate. And if this works, we can shrink this arrangement down and use it for battlesuits!

[swordsmith04]

You want to make the spaceship armor 10cm thick? Or is this being layered, like battlesuit plate?

[tryrar]

point, might wanna add another zero to those measurements(or go with the layering idea). I dunno which would be better though...

[renegadelobster]

Why not both? Increase each layer by 50% then layer them

[tryrar]

So layers of a 45-60-45mm mix? at 5 layers that's 225-300-225mm(or 22.5-30-22.5cm for a total thickness of 75cm). Repeat that 5 times(or a 112.5-150-112.5 mix for a total of 375cm of thickness) and we might have something here(remember as sean pointed out we're dealing with weight and volume so we need to balance thickness with protection)

[renegadelobster]

How thick is regular military starship armour again? I seem to of forgotten. If it's thinner than that, but provides the same level of protection I'd say it's all good.

[Nikitian]

Let's see... What if we reversed the order?

• If the main space combat weapons are lasers (or, generalised, energy weapons), the main ship armor should be made of hexsand - I take it is far better in terms of energy absorbtion compared to pure vanilla hexplate. We don't know if its thickness affects the energy resistance, I but I suppose that after a certain optimal value it does not matter much (though not against kinetic projectiles, see below).
• Now, it is fairly fragile, which the enemy might decide to exploit at some point - if enough small projectiles are shot, there will be hits and there will be damage to the armor. Plus, there is always the problem of accidental collision with space debris. With that in mind, and with its 'regenerative' properties, I propose that the outer shell of the spaceship should be made of sharkmist armor. It should probably be only moderately thick, not too thin to be actually useless, but not by any means thick because even then it would be next to useless (compared to other armor options available to us).
• Finally, we have hexbug armor, of using which, I confess, I am a little sceptical. As it was mentioned by Piecewise, kinetic-proof armor is needed only if we intend to present a viable target for kinetic bombardment. Here it is up to the higher staff to decide whether we would want to spend invest massive resources to be able to resist serious kinetic bombardment. And I am not talking about materials and effort only - for example, increasing ship mass enough to be up to the task (while maybe even possible now with the hexbug armor) means much less manoeuvrability/even greater increase in propulsion systems required, and so on, and so on.
  However, I believe that, having this awesome technology in our hands, we should at least try and protect our ships from medium kinetic bombardment - something way more powerful than what could be endured by the outer sharkshell, yet something far more weaker than true kinetic bombardment comparable to the Hammer of Hephaestus's caliber. Thus, a compably thin (by spaceship armor standards) layer of hexbug armor just beyond the hexsand layer.
• Finally, we have to take care of redundancy and all that. So I think the hexsand and hexbug layers could be repeated, with the final layer of hexbug armor being, say, twice or thrice as thick. Now, I have no idea why would a sharklayer be useful (except for maybe sort of cushion, but there surely have to be better materials). The exact thickness and composition is subject to further calculations based on additional data, of course.

This design would obviously be sub-par for battlesuit plating (and spacestation armoring, if we ever get there) because of far greater kinetic weapons threat, but it should do the job fine in the described conditions of modern space warfare. Also, on the plus side, if the xenobug layers are actually that good, it might also protect the ship to some point against whatever 'automanip ordnance' suggested several posts above we may encounter.

[Parisbre56]

there is always the problem of accidental collision with space debris

Just wanted to point out that most ships are equipped with automanipulator shields that take care of most small space debris. One would have to use a deliberate projectile attack to damage a ship with something small, either by bypassing the shield (by using an automanipulator or hiding from its sensors for example) or overwhelming it (ludicrous speed, a swarm of projectiles or rockets that can keep pushing for long enough). Unless we're going to stop equipping our ships with shields of that kind and rely purely on mundane armour.

Not that I disagree with your armour proposal, I think it's great. Just wanted to point that out.

[tryrar]

The the shark layer was due to the hegbug layer being analogous to scale mail: i.e. a collection of hard plates backed by a softer, more flexible layer. This was due to the fact hexbug is rigid and indestructible enough to damage it's mountings IIRC, and I was hoping such an arrangement would alleviate it. Though, if we're going to layer it like you suggested, we might not need the shark layer for the flexibility, so that can probably be omitted.

However, an arrangement like I described would probably be perfect for battlesuit armor. Someone wanna go prototype a standard battlesuit with a double layer of the armor arrangement I outlined?(for reference that'd be a double layer of the 45-60-45mm mix I came up with)

Also, the reason I want hexbug backing the hexplate is that while hexbug isn't laser-proof, it's still fairy laser resistant according to PW, so it still offers a bit of protection from energy weapons. Hell, we can go a hexplate-shark-hexbug-shark setup

Edit: Now that I think on it, a hex-shark-bug-shark layering would probably be the best way to go. So, make it a 30-30-30-30mm layering and repeat ad infinitum until you have the desired thickness. The pro to this is you have a laser-proof outer layer that can be hled together by a regenerating middle layer so that it still remains somewhat effective, backed by a hard kinetic(and laser, though not as much as the hex)-resistant layer also kept together by a regenerating layer if cracked.

[swordsmith04]

Sharkplate only regenerates when it has a source of carbon to munch on, remember. It's not going to be doing much regenerating in space. When it's the innermost layer, it could be accessed from within the ship, but as an outer layer, it would require a layer of non-armor carbon underneath it, or for drones or something to EVA to scrape a block of carbon across it during space combat.

[renegadelobster]

Just a thought, do you have to put carbon on the area that was damaged with the sharkplate? Or, if it's damaged, will it ferry carbon to the damaged area from other spots? Say one side of the ship is damaged, could you just go and put an asteroid/source of carbon on the other side and it will take it there on its own. That might be important to know.

[Nikitian]

Well, whatever the sharkmist regeneration speed is, I doubt it is fast enough to be utilized in space combat. Maybe, just maybe, in ships specifically designed around it. I based my assumptions mostly on between-combat shark armor 'repairs'.

@tryrar Hm, wouldn't you rather put hexbug layer first (based on its much greater kinetic and okay laser resistances)? Just so there'd be a greater chance of lesser projectiles plinking and doing no damage to the armor at all. Otherwise, yeah, it's probably very good for battlesuits.

[piecewise]

Ya better watch out Sean, a particular member of the council is eying you with vicious intent.

[Toaster]

You might even say...


[Vicious intentsifies]

[Sean Mirrsen]

Ya better watch out Sean, a particular member of the council is eying you with vicious intent.

Heh. I wonder why. I'm not really doing much here, per se. I'm just asking if I can design an even more powerful and implausible laser for capital ships.
(Also, fully admitting it's highly implausible, which is why I'm also designing a ship using the available laser technology.)

Also also, any more comments on my proposed design of ship(s)? Small "flying cannon" ships acting as dockable self-propelled turrets is an idea I'm particularly concerned with the reaction to, as I kinda like it, yet also realize it's probably not the most practical solution.