Savage my science II (Stealth)

[DocFlamingo]

This is one of the most controversial technologies in SciFi today. There are MANY MANY reasons why “stealth in space” is viewed as impossible, most notably that pesky second law of thermodynamics. But, it is a very useful tool and I’m convinced it is possible under certain circumstances. Let me know what you think of my hand-waved solution.

Powerful ECM equipment can render a space-born object invisible to sensor recognition. This is achieved through the use of a specialized shield called a Backlighter which reflects a vessel’s radiant heat signature back toward the craft. This tends to build up heat inside the vessel and can only be maintained for a few hours before reaching dangerous temperatures. A ship will eventually need to vent this heat which is tantamount to setting of a flare beacon, easily noticed from dozens of leagues away.
If the cloaked vessel is only concerned about detection from a single direction, they may create an opening in the field to radiate heat. If only hiding from a single, known vantage point the surface area can be reduced considerably, allowing greater efficiency and the ability to remain cloaked almost indefinitely, even allowing for small levels of acceleration, usually limited to 0.01 to 0.1 G.
A cloaked vessel is otherwise unable to use its maneuver drives, weapons, or defensive screens while the backlight field is active and must keep its reactor at minimal power. Its own sensor equipment is greatly restricted as well, with only passive sensor capability, reduced to about 20% normal range and efficiency.

 

[Pyan]

Moved to Workshop.

 

[Nik]

Um, don't forget you are faced with masking ship's neutrino emissions and all EM emissions across entire range of spectrum *while* avoiding notice by multiple automated systems that may be watching a zillion back-ground stars and beacons for transits...

One component of partial solution would be to carry a cryogenic heat-sink, eg liquid methane etc, and play 'asteroidal'...

Can be done, partly, for a while, but you gotta know the observation-threat axes...

There's another issue: space is not 'empty'. There's a solar wind, magnetospheres etc, and instruments that may watch for distortions in these-- Like standing-waves and wakes around buoys in a channel, you'd notice the ripples as anything came through...

 

[Shadow Trooper]

If I have to think about it, I don't really like the cloaking side of things (although it never bothered me in any ST series LOL).

There are certain elements to stealth along the lines that you are talking about that seem acceptable (ie closing everything down to hide, but really not being able to do much else whilst in stealth mode). But I also always like the idea of natural 'space' assisting with stealth or hiding (ST Wrath of Khan hide and seek in the nebula comes to mind).

 

[n2so4]

But I also always like the idea of natural 'space' assisting with stealth or hiding (ST Wrath of Khan hide and seek in the nebula comes to mind).

Star Trek should never be used as a point of referrence for hard SF writing; the series is legendary for it's abuse of science.

Personally I don't like the idea of starship cloaking devices in serious SF; if you mask your EM and thermal signature then there's always background particulate matter bouncing off your hull to give you away (as mentioned above). There's also factors like you ship obscuring star fields, gravity wakes and the various radiation spectrums.

One possible way to hand-wave the matter is some kind of near-FLT effect such as dropping your ship into 'near' hyperspace; but then the energy signature from that might well give you away.

Just my two cents.

 

[Shadow Trooper]

Star Trek should never be used as a point of referrence for hard SF writing; the series is legendary for it's abuse of science.

Hey, it was more of a reference. Anyway, how dare you 'dis' the Trek! One day I intend to apply to Starfleet, and you can be sure that when I get in I'll tell them all exactly what you said! Hah, you'll never get in; LOL


Although I do stand by the thought that the Universe is full of so many different things like nebula etc you could easily say that ships would be affected in a certain way that their energy readings could be masked; maybe