Shield and Shielding Technology
There are a few layers of Shields and they have separate roles.
Historically the first ever created were Deflectors. Deflectors were Originally designed in the 2250's for Asteroid Mining vessels to reduce the damage from small high speed rocks. It was assumed that the energy required to completely stop or absorb these small rocks would be too much to actually Economically be viable. But changing their direction with magnetic fields and later repulsion fields would be enough to either slow down such a projectile that it does negligible damage or completely changes it's trajectory.
With these in place mining became a lot safer but the military also saw application for this technology but couldn't find a way to make them work for Projectiles fired by guns. At least at first. after the first Interstellar wars and most of these concerns were no longer any as the price went down dramatically and the first Radiation Shielding Layer arrays were successfully used. At first only designed to block some of the constant radiation of space they slowly developed into near Perfect filters and come standard with nearly all vessel's built in the last 400 Years.
Sometime in the 2360's the First "Hard" Shield's were successfully tested. These can completely absorb Kinetic energy and Spread Directed Energy Weaponry. Hard here is referring to the fact that these can ensure that Solid objects do not pass through them. At first, due to the complexity and Energy costs they were used on Turrets along the ship and only activated upon imminent impacts. Fully Enveloping shield were attempted but had a small issue, they would also not let in Communications and also blocked nearly all Visual Sensors, effectively taking themselves out of combat.
Second Gen Hard Shields are more "soft". They allow for one way traversal, This allowed for Guns, Missiles and Fighters to be launched even within the Safety of the shield and crucially allowing certain Communication waves through. Second Gen Hard Shields are the first true Full Ship Protection system but they still come at a huge energy demand. Early Ships with full encasing were having a second Full-sized Generator just for it.
First Gen Hybrid Defense Array's were Truly a breakthrough in this field, where before Ship Engineers had to choose between either getting Deflectors/Repulsors OR a Hard Shield they now could do both and even have the systems linked to provide an energy efficient defense that could be left on for the most part. Adjusting the hardness according to the "pressure" imparted on it. Its major flaw was, if the shield were to get hit by 10's or 100's of these Triggers, the shield System could easily be overwhelmed and if not properly maintained or the Safety overwritten lead to either the Power Core melting, breaking or all sorts of Fatal damage to the Ship that carried these. Later Hybrid First Gens became Civilian hits and for some in-System Dropship designs.
Another Invention were the Structural Support Gird . These are, simply speaking, a Second skin over the Actual Hull of a ship. They can soften blows of Kinetic Impact Weaponry and more importantly keep Ships from breaking apart. Spaceships have this nasty tendency to decompress upon having a hole punched into them. This can, if wanted, stop that. It can also keep ships in the fight after getting parts cut off, as the grid will keep them loosely attached and in some cases keep the part powered and Operational, this is rare though.
Historically the first ever created were Deflectors. Deflectors were Originally designed in the 2250's for Asteroid Mining vessels to reduce the damage from small high speed rocks. It was assumed that the energy required to completely stop or absorb these small rocks would be too much to actually Economically be viable. But changing their direction with magnetic fields and later repulsion fields would be enough to either slow down such a projectile that it does negligible damage or completely changes it's trajectory.
With these in place mining became a lot safer but the military also saw application for this technology but couldn't find a way to make them work for Projectiles fired by guns. At least at first. after the first Interstellar wars and most of these concerns were no longer any as the price went down dramatically and the first Radiation Shielding Layer arrays were successfully used. At first only designed to block some of the constant radiation of space they slowly developed into near Perfect filters and come standard with nearly all vessel's built in the last 400 Years.
Sometime in the 2360's the First "Hard" Shield's were successfully tested. These can completely absorb Kinetic energy and Spread Directed Energy Weaponry. Hard here is referring to the fact that these can ensure that Solid objects do not pass through them. At first, due to the complexity and Energy costs they were used on Turrets along the ship and only activated upon imminent impacts. Fully Enveloping shield were attempted but had a small issue, they would also not let in Communications and also blocked nearly all Visual Sensors, effectively taking themselves out of combat.
Second Gen Hard Shields are more "soft". They allow for one way traversal, This allowed for Guns, Missiles and Fighters to be launched even within the Safety of the shield and crucially allowing certain Communication waves through. Second Gen Hard Shields are the first true Full Ship Protection system but they still come at a huge energy demand. Early Ships with full encasing were having a second Full-sized Generator just for it.
First Gen Hybrid Defense Array's were Truly a breakthrough in this field, where before Ship Engineers had to choose between either getting Deflectors/Repulsors OR a Hard Shield they now could do both and even have the systems linked to provide an energy efficient defense that could be left on for the most part. Adjusting the hardness according to the "pressure" imparted on it. Its major flaw was, if the shield were to get hit by 10's or 100's of these Triggers, the shield System could easily be overwhelmed and if not properly maintained or the Safety overwritten lead to either the Power Core melting, breaking or all sorts of Fatal damage to the Ship that carried these. Later Hybrid First Gens became Civilian hits and for some in-System Dropship designs.
Another Invention were the Structural Support Gird . These are, simply speaking, a Second skin over the Actual Hull of a ship. They can soften blows of Kinetic Impact Weaponry and more importantly keep Ships from breaking apart. Spaceships have this nasty tendency to decompress upon having a hole punched into them. This can, if wanted, stop that. It can also keep ships in the fight after getting parts cut off, as the grid will keep them loosely attached and in some cases keep the part powered and Operational, this is rare though.
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