I've just started playing this, can't seem to make a ship that withstands a few attacks with pirates and I end up spending most of my time making repairs... but it's very fun.
Also I made a ship that can destroy an asteroid with one missile. I felt bad for using that overpowered cannon on a single pirate >:)
*Edit
Is is possible to make AI ram enemies with Dis-integrators? If so, I may add a few tiny Self Delete AI ships to my main one and detach them in a pinch to destroy any enemies on my tail.