Scrapping and Shipbreaking in Science Fiction

Spacedock delves into the breaking down and recycling of disused spacecraft in science fiction.

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Battlezone II Music by Carey Chico

Spacedock does not hold ownership of the copyrighted materiel (Footage, Stills etc) taken from the various works of fiction covered in this series, and uses them within the boundaries of Fair Use for the purpose of Analysis, Discussion and Review.

[spamviking]

The fact Coruscant has ship breaking yards while whole scrap planets exist is a mirror of our own world. A modern ship like a Star Destroyer probably has components, like the hyperdrive, that make recycling the hull worth the effort. But a centuries old freighter probably would just be dropped on some outer rim equivalent of the Bangladesh coast where workers rights and environmental laws are what the local Hutt cartel say they are.

[MatecaCorp]

The fact that the shipyard background in The Mandalorian was in a large part composed of physical miniatures makes me appreciate that show a bit more

[BattleUnit]

Honestly the Y-wings looks like something built so cheaply that the Hyperdrive was probably more than half the production cost.

[tspangs]

The final level of Halo: Reach is a great example too. You literally fight your way through a shipbreaking yard that's being overrun by the Covenant as well as through a partially scrapped ship.

There's also a spot where you can see in the distance dozens of decommissioned ships laid out in rows on the planet's surface waiting to be scrapped.

[arandomcommenter]

The Hyperdrive thing always makes me think of a quote from Watto in Episode I.

"Thee in luck, I'm the only one hereabouts who has one...but thee might as well buy a new ship. It would be cheaper"

I think that right there sums up why hyperdrives are so often seen to be recycled. Seems like constructing hyperdrives is extremely complicated and expensive, to the point where it would probably be cheaper to take an older model of hyperdrive and just stick it onto your new ships. That would probably be why we see the NR recycle so many hyperdrive parts from SSDs (because why let such valuable things go to waste, especially because the government that would have created replacement ones is now gone?)

[UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

One of the most notable ship breaking companies in Canada has a location in my town, and my dad, doing security there, gets to just take stuff from the ships all the time. Usually just cool trinkets, but you’d be amazed how much food they store in those things, *completely* untouched

[NeoTechni]

The Star Trek: DS9 tech manual actually covers this a bit. Tech on starships that have aged/degraded due to the stresses of space travel, are eventually shipped to use on starbases for the remainder of their lifespan as there's less stresses on them there.

[ImperatorZor]

To prevent bits from getting all over the place in orbit, ship breaking in space should happen in an enclosed envelope. Basically a big tarp tent around the craft.

[irystocrattakodachithatmooms]

I really like how in Hardspace you have to put things in the correct place; softer materials and glass in the furnace, harder in the processor and stuff that can be resold in the barge. You also have to be really careful due to all the hazards like fuel lines that still have fuel in them.

[darthhodges]

My understanding of (old) Star Wars lore was that hyperdrives were invented many thousands of years ago and no one alive actually understands how they work, just that they do. No true breakthroughs have happened in millennia and building new units requires copying an existing working unit. That would certainly contribute to the appearance of technological stagnation and support the idea that recycling hyperdrive units, especially very large or powerful ones, is cheaper than building new.

[mikoirl]

Meticulously taking apart the ship part-by-part

vs.

Chucking the entire ship into a giant furnace

vs.

Yeet it into the sun

[Majere]

An interesting real-world example of ship 'recycling' that could be adapted for sci-fi is the trade in pre-WWII battleship steel. The atomic bombs used and tested in WWII put miniscule amounts of nuclear fallout into the atmosphere which was then present in all the steel manufactured since. This caused problems with hospital radiography equipment, which is incredibly sensitive, and so steel from ships sunk before the bombs went off became a necessity for making that equipment, leading to both authorised and unauthorised salvaging of the wrecks. Battleships, with their thick armour, were a prime source.

[Aragorn]

Imagine the clean up from the Death Star 😬😳

[madrabbit]

I did a pre-breaking inspection on the USS Tarawa down in Brownsville some years ago. Its a very sad thing to see these once proud ships being broken up. The saddest one was the USS Newport News being broken up in the early 90's down in New Orleans...her big guns had been cut off and her turrets had nothing but stubs protruding from them. A breaker's yard is a sad place for a sailor.

[justinjacobs]

7:18 This ship is such a huge mystery in the Gundam fan base. It appears to be a Pegasus class assault carrier from the same line as the Gray Phantom. But, the Gray Phantom and its sister ship the Stallion were lost when they were caught in a nuclear blast roughly nineteen million miles from earth. This means that it has to be a third ship of that line which is unaccounted for. An oddity because the Pegasus class ships were extremely limited in production.

[DrakeAurum]

Shout-out to Firefly, for the Ariel heist which involved restoring a scrapped ambulance to working order for the infiltration phase.

[evanperes]

Another stressor that can degrade spacecrafts is the extremely tenuous upper atmosphere in low orbit. There is a little bit of air still up there and it has an impact. Of note is monoatomic oxygen because oxygen is very reactive and can corrode/react with the spacecraft.

[mitwhitgaming]

We need more games like Hardspace: Shipbreaker!
Imagine an RPG with a similar if not as indepth mechanic!

[xdeadbeef]

I'd like to metion graveyard orbits as another option. I could invision a scrapyard planet using rings of scrapped ships. A newly decommissioned ship is placed in the outermost orbit. The ships then get broken up in space and smaller components are moved into a closer orbit for further processing.

[taitano]

If real life is any indication, the ships on Coriscant would be shipped to the breaking yards after being stripped down. IRL, a ship spends months to years dockside, sometimes in drydock, being stripped of anything valuable and/or still in good working condition. They also are sanitized - anything dangerous and toxic is also removed. Then they're brought to the breaker and torn down. Since they usually wear out around the same time as the main vessel, a lot of times the engine is left in and the ship has just shy of enough fuel for the journey. The breaker is usually allowed to use the engine as if it was scrap, and they sometimes refurbish and auction the engine. Most times, the owner will remove the engine once it gets to the breaker, and sell it as scrap metal.