We give a unified proof for the well-posedness of a class of linear
half-space equations with general incoming data and construct a Galerkin method
to numerically resolve this type of equations in a systematic way. Our main
strategy in both analysis and numerics includes three steps: adding damping
terms to the original half-space equation, using an inf-sup argument and
even-odd decomposition to establish the well-posedness of the damped equation,
and then recovering solutions to the original half-space equation. The proposed
numerical methods for the damped equation is shown to be quasi-optimal and the
numerical error of approximations to the original equation is controlled by
that of the damped equation. This efficient solution to the half-space problem
is useful for kinetic-fluid coupling simulations