Any Space Icebreakers?

[AMX]

Just an insane thought that popped into my head from nowhere:
Did any story, ever, feature a spaceship that is sort of analogous to an icebreaker?
And is it even possible for such a thing to make sense?

[Admiral Valdemar]

No.

[andrewgpaul]

The only thing I can think of that even approaches that concept is some sort of ship in the Star Wars setting expressly designed to punch through planetary shields or interdiction fields. Even then, it's a bit of a stretch.

[General Zod]

Just an insane thought that popped into my head from nowhere:
Did any story, ever, feature a spaceship that is sort of analogous to an icebreaker?
And is it even possible for such a thing to make sense?

Barring some bizarre laws of physics in a given sci-fi universe it would just be easier to go around any given phenomenon in space.

[Bounty]

They would be useful for navigating the space North Poles, assuming they had some way of dealing with space ice bears.

[YT300000]

The only thing I can think of that even approaches that concept is some sort of ship in the Star Wars setting expressly designed to punch through planetary shields or interdiction fields. Even then, it's a bit of a stretch.

I thought of an asteroid field myself, but that wouldn't really work as the asteroids just float around. Especially considering that in a real-life asteroid field, they would be huge distances apart.

[AMX]

Barring some bizarre laws of physics in a given sci-fi universe it would just be easier to go around any given phenomenon in space.

Well... maybe there's a really good reason to go into the "ice"; or it's literally impossible to go around it, although that poses the question why "icebreakers" are different from other ships.

[Vehrec]

Shieldships from Starwars let you get really close to a star by staying in their shadow. That's the closest analogy I can think of.

[General Zod]

Barring some bizarre laws of physics in a given sci-fi universe it would just be easier to go around any given phenomenon in space.

Well... maybe there's a really good reason to go into the "ice"; or it's literally impossible to go around it, although that poses the question why "icebreakers" are different from other ships.

Uh, ice in space typically is not large enough that it's impossible to go around if you're in any type of FTL vessel. If you're in a slower than light society, then there's very few places you'd run into that sort of situation without the solar system being specifically designed with that sort of obstacle in mind. It just doesn't make sense otherwise.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Yeah, Star Wars shield ships are literally the closest sci-fi ship analogue to icebreakers I can think of, too.

Barring some bizarre laws of physics in a given sci-fi universe it would just be easier to go around any given phenomenon in space.

Well... maybe there's a really good reason to go into the "ice"; or it's literally impossible to go around it, although that poses the question why "icebreakers" are different from other ships.

There is way too much in that post that is completely mental. Icebreakers are different from other ships because they allow you to break through ice in arctic waters so you can get closer to land and not have to cross so much of the ice on foot.

There is literally no true analogue of that in outer space.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Would a drilled-wormhole system be suitably equivalent?

Basically- for stability reasons that, as far as I know, almost make real sense, it's impossible to open an interstellar portal and pass through it.
The portal-opening ship needs to remain on one end to stabilise the wormhole, so other craft can pass through, it can't do so itself.

The only place I can think of by name is actually a roleplaying game by a Canadian company, Heavy Gear, which used 'gateships' that functioned that way. I'm sure the idea has come up in an SF novel somewhere, I just can't remember where else it's familiar from.

Of course, the general case- some kind of stargate or portal structure- is common enough.

[AMX]

Shieldships from Starwars let you get really close to a star by staying in their shadow. That's the closest analogy I can think of.

I actually knew about those - now should I admit that I simply forgot them, or try to find some excuse to disqualify them?

Would a drilled-wormhole system be suitably equivalent?

Basically- for stability reasons that, as far as I know, almost make real sense, it's impossible to open an interstellar portal and pass through it.
The portal-opening ship needs to remain on one end to stabilise the wormhole, so other craft can pass through, it can't do so itself.

The only place I can think of by name is actually a roleplaying game by a Canadian company, Heavy Gear, which used 'gateships' that functioned that way. I'm sure the idea has come up in an SF novel somewhere, I just can't remember where else it's familiar from.

Of course, the general case- some kind of stargate or portal structure- is common enough.

That sounds sort of reasonably close, I think.

So the current tally is
-SW Shieldships
-Heavy Gear Gateships

[Vanas]

I recall that in one of the Starfox games, there was a ship designed to punch though a dense asteroid field surrounding the good guy's home world. Been a while since I've played the games, but they sound about right.

[Gunhead]

How about a ship that creates a bubble around it that allows other ships to pass through hyperspace/warp etc with it. Or it allows passage to systems that cannot be reached through normal means of FTL travel.

One possibility would be that FTL is made possible by wormholes that remain open for a limited period of time/become unstable and whatnot. And have to reopened/stabilized on certain intervals.

-Gunhead

[Lord of the Abyss]

How about a ( probably unmanned ) ship designed to plow a large tunnel through gas or dust clouds ( with a variation of a Bussard ramscoop or a sci-fi style forcefield ), so that other ships can be sent through at much higher speeds ?

[Stark]

Many scifi worlds have larger ships that can extend their FTL to include smaller ships. Dune even has big 'carry ships'.

From another perspective Borg transwarp-conduit laying is like icebreaking: you couldn't go there before, but now you can because a path has been opened. Indeed, any universe with few true FTL ships that set up or build gates or nodes or whatever are 'icebreakers', breaking new ground for 'regular' ships.

[Sea Skimmer]

Note that submarines icebreakers do not exist; this is for the same reason why they would not be needed in space, the third dimension.

[aerius]

The closest I can think of are the ships for "dredging" or enlarging wormholes in Exodus by Steve White. They built a whole new class of super large ships which can only get through a small number of wormholes, so now they have to build a bunch of ships to enlarge the wormholes so the bigger ships can get through them.