Spaceships hull armor…solid?

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Rupert

You'd have the impactors on the same delivery bus, and them separate very shortly before impact so the separation is small (in both time and distance).

But at astronomical velocities, even 1/100 of a second could make it hard to hit the same hole. And if they are too close together they will be hit by debris from the first projectile vapourizing and be knocked off course.

Originally Posted by Rupert

I think assuming that it's anything but "whatever works well against the threats the ship faces" (whatever form of armour that might be) is mistaken. "Whatever works best" would of course be the 'hardened' option, at double cost.

But the way single hard dense layers of armor scale against bullet-speed projectiles is different than the way Whipple shields scale against astronomical-speed projectiles. A model has to make some assumption about how armour and threats scale against each other.