Micrometeoroids are a fact of space travel, and in this universe, so are kinetic weapons. so the authors imagined/researched a material meant to resist the tendency of the ship's materials to become secondary projectiles ricocheting through the ship turning everyone and everything into swiss cheese.
I think they may be defunct now, but there was a company called Tethers, Inc who had in their toolbox making 'cables' that look more like fishing nets. The idea being to reduce the likelihood of a single strike damaging multiple structural members at once.
I don't know what or if we can do for satellites that is in this direction. You can make the satellites tiny but you still need solar collectors.