Can the tractor beam cause damage to a ship?
TL;DRThe tractor beam isn't designed as an offensive weapon and they don't want to go down the route of tearing ships apart, though careless handling, like badly righting a ship, can damage it.
It's not something we've really considered in terms of the design for it, in terms of using it as an offensive weapon.
Something like drawing and quartering a ship, basically. Take a Cutlass and four SRVs, grab it in four cardinal directions and pull in opposite directions.
I don't think so. That's not something we want to go down. It can cause damage through negligent behavior. So if you're trying to right a ship that's upside down and you don't manage that twisting and turning... In fact, I was in the hotel last night watching some documentary about truckers in the Arctic righting big 18-wheelers that had gone off the road, and the amount of tow trucks they had to do in very specific places to pull it over, and they didn't quite do it right and it just rocked it over and then rocked it back the other way and then damaged it more.