Soldak Entertainment Blog Update

Steven Peeler from Soldak Entertainment penned a blog post about what he's planning about space ships' health and durability in his upcoming game. Even if you're not necessarily interested in the game itself, it serves as a decent read about health mechanics in RPGs in general.
Right now I think your "health" will be shields, armor, and then structure/internals. The interesting part is that each layer of "health" increases in cost for you.

Usually your shields are your first line of defense. Shields will automatically recharge fairly quickly over time so damaged shields aren't a big deal.

After your shields are down, your armor will start being damaged. Armor probably won't auto repair at the beginning and when you do get automatic repairing it will probably be fairly slow. You will be able to pay someone to repair your armor though and it will probably be fairly cheap.