Kinetic Barrier (Spaceborne)

A spaceborne kinetic barrier has to overcome the simple limitation that space is—in terms of physical matter—mostly empty. The kinetic barriers on ships gather space dust instead of air, atomize larger particles with laser emitters, and shape them into a barrier using the ship’s Icarus engine. A ship in motion recharges faster than a ship that is stationary (relative to the local astronomic bodies), although some ships carry reserve matter to “fast charge” their barriers in case of emergency. Most ships are able to dynamically manage power allocation to their barriers as well as shift matter from one quadrant to another, although the latter takes time. Civilian ships tend to maximize the power and matter allocation in the direction of travel.

Since space stations are most often in orbit over a planet, their shields depend on matter brought in by arriving ships and debris collectors. The greater availability of power on a functional station means these shields can be quite robust and are rarely turned off, although docking lanes are kept open during normal operations.