How would you capture a spaceship?

[sciwriterPark]

I was wondering how you would capture a spaceship in normal space? (Fun fictional ideas- no tractor beams and no transporters)

 

[AllanR]

Disable the engines of the spaceship and have your ship match vector (direction and velocity) with the spaceship. Once the two ships have negligible relative motion, drift across a boarding party.

Alternately -force them to surrender control by threatening to destroy their ship and have the ability and reputation to back the threat.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Hack/hijack its navigation controls, then remotely guide it to wherever you want to put it.

 

[.matthew.]

Subterfuge. Depending on the ship in question and who your pirates are, there could be a lot of fun angles to approach from.

Need more information

 

[JunkMonkey]

Unmanned? Like a satellite or a Voyager like probe? Or a a Superheavyweight Battle cruiser of the E E Smith variety?

A little more detail would be useful.

 

[Wayne Mack]

Sending out an SOS signal is a popular choice. Fly alongside it, weld a bar from the pirate ship, then force open an airlock for boarding. Override the ships telemetry by broadcasting a strong signal and project a large body or star directly in front of it or a complete black out. Still would need a boarding party once the ship stopped.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Hack/hijack its navigation controls, then remotely guide it to wherever you want to put it.

Sounds nice but assumes the computer system of a spaceship is stupidly designed and will accept code from external sources. Why would it need to do that?

 

[psikeyhackr]

The absurd thing about Star Trek is weapons so small and powerful and the computer so smart. Why couldn't a computer controlled defense system be built into the walls and ceilings?

 

[alexvss]

@sciwriterPark
In Descender, by Jeff Lemire, space scrappers use a "squid ship" to capture other ships. The tentacles latch onto the other ship, capturing it. I'm not sure how though--maybe eletromagnetism?

 

[.matthew.]

The absurd thing about Star Trek is weapons so small and powerful and the computer so smart. Why couldn't a computer controlled defense system be built into the walls and ceilings?

I always wondered that, especially after I saw Andromeda and it had that sort of thing.

Personally, I'd go for holo emitters. We've seen throughout Trek that holograms can occupy entire ships/villages, and with the safeties turned off, you've got a perfect aimbot-level defence force on every vessel.

 

[Bramandin]

Sounds nice but assumes the computer system of a spaceship is stupidly designed and will accept code from external sources. Why would it need to do that?

Babylon 5 had ship navigation turned over to the station when docking. However, it's probably SOP to turn off the WiFi when not docking.

I'm thinking something along the lines of firing frozen space-turkeys at the ship, assuming that they don't have a way to deflect space-debris.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Set off some sort of huge (directed?) electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that would fry - or at least scramble - all the target ship's systems long enough for you to get alongside and board. Make sure the target ship's life support is knackered and bribe/con your way inside with that conveniently large supply of spare air and water you happen to have on your own ship. If they refuse, just drift away to a safe distance. Wait till they have almost got their systems back up and running... then hit them with another EMP. Rinse and repeat till they give up.

 

[BAYLOR]

Set up a tourist trap ? .

 

[Rodders]

Change the computer programming. (I don't know anything about computers, BTW, but it seems low risk.)

 

[Wayne Mack]

The issue with using an EMP on a ship is that if the ship has a metal hull, then it is effectively shielded from the pulse. The first set of electronics between any antennae would likely be damaged, causing the ship to be temporarily blind, but everything internal to the ship should be unaffected.

 

[sciwriterPark]

Unmanned? Like a satellite or a Voyager like probe? Or a a Superheavyweight Battle cruiser of the E E Smith variety?

A little more detail would be useful.

a manned spaceship

 

[sciwriterPark]

The issue with using an EMP on a ship is that if the ship has a metal hull, then it is effectively shielded from the pulse. The first set of electronics between any antennae would likely be damaged, causing the ship to be temporarily blind, but everything internal to the ship should be unaffected.

agreed.

 

[sciwriterPark]

Change the computer programming. (I don't know anything about computers,BTW but it seems low risk.)

yes, once inside. But how do you make it work if it's alien computers? I guess you'll need an expert on that topic.

 

[JunkMonkey]

yes, once inside. But how do you make it work if it's alien computers? I guess you'll need an expert on that topic.

The issue with using an EMP on a ship is that if the ship has a metal hull, then it is effectively shielded from the pulse. The first set of electronics between any antennae would likely be damaged, causing the ship to be temporarily blind, but everything internal to the ship should be unaffected.

Bum! ah well...

 

[MaxRelaxman]

The issue with using an EMP on a ship is that if the ship has a metal hull, then it is effectively shielded from the pulse. The first set of electronics between any antennae would likely be damaged, causing the ship to be temporarily blind, but everything internal to the ship should be unaffected.

I imagine they'd start maneuvering like crazy once that happened, making it even harder to board them.