Ablative Armor

Ablative armor is armor which prevents damage by instead being destroyed itself through the process of ablation. In contemporary spacecraft, ablative plating is most frequently seen as an ablative heat shield for a vehicle that must enter atmosphere from orbit, such as on nuclear warheads, or space vehicles like the Mars Pathfinder probe. The idea is also commonly encountered in science fiction.

Ablative armor is distinct from the concept of reactive armor which is actually in common use in modern armored vehicles.

Space colonies and ships of the future will almost certainly require a type of ablative armor to withstand space radiation and heat. When traveling at higher speeds the momentum of the particles the ships will encounter will be large, and require more protection.