Ryujin
Legend
Somewhat easier when you know precisely which cubic inch of sand you need to look at in the first place.
The Expanse
Somewhat easier when you know precisely which cubic inch of sand you need to look at in the first place.
I was gonna point that out.
We can, with current technology, scan the entire sky in about four hours. I suspect that future tech can do it faster. The only problem with this method is that you might miss objects within a couple of degrees of the sun. But again, when we're at the level of trying to build stealth ships, you could probably outfit your telescopes with occlusion filters when searching that area.
Don't get me wrong, I love The Expanse. It is hands down one of my favorite shows, not just right now, but of all time. But stealth in space seems pretty unlikely unless you can get rid of your heat.
I suspect the stealthiness of the ship in The Expanse has more to do with thwarting active sensors like the radar guidance from torpedoes than actually becoming invisible from radio telescopes.
Nellisir
Hero
We've lost satellites in Earth orbit, and Planet X is hiding pretty well. I'm not sweating stealth ships in space.
I expect that a stealth ship in space would be heavily heat insulated, and would sink its heat into internal storage areas, only venting such when under thrust.
Hmm...if you use chunks of a ceramic material as your heat sink, ejecting it might be functionally like chaff...
Hmm...if you use chunks of a ceramic material as your heat sink, ejecting it might be functionally like chaff...
That seems unfeasible. How would you store the heat coming from your thrusters? And your habitable area still has to maintain a temperature nearly 300 Celcius higher than the surrounding area. I can somewhat imagine ships without a human crew having some stealth capacity but the moment they use their engines, they'll light up.
tomBitonti
Adventurer
Great show! I do wonder how folks who have not read the books are able to fit the story together. (I haven't, but I read the book back outlines, so have an idea of what is going on.)
Re: Stealth in Space. Did some looking, and found contradictory answers.
This would seem to be convincing:
http://txchnologist.com/post/61492589701/did-you-know-we-can-still-spot-voyager-1
But, I am wondering, is that for a directional source with a narrow broadcast wavelength?
Project Rho seems to be a common link, and their conclusion is that stealth in space is impossible:
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacewardetect.php
I would tend to agree for a ship which is using a lot of energy, or which is on active thrust.
There are also links to this:
http://www.rocketpunk-manifesto.com/2009/06/space-warfare-ii-stealth-reconsidered.html
Both of the preceding provide must as far as convincing calculations.
This one seemed best, in that it provides some basic calculations, and it contradicts the above in that it concludes that stealth is possible, essentially by keeping energy use low, and by pointing heat sources away from folks who you want to not see you.
http://scienceblogs.com/builtonfacts/2010/03/10/while-doing-some-poking-around/
Here is one more link:
http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/672/is-there-any-way-to-truly-hide-a-spaceship
This discussion is interesting (I'm still reading):
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.arts.sf.science/MhMfawsVuGM[1-25]
Thx!
TomB
Re: Stealth in Space. Did some looking, and found contradictory answers.
This would seem to be convincing:
http://txchnologist.com/post/61492589701/did-you-know-we-can-still-spot-voyager-1
But, I am wondering, is that for a directional source with a narrow broadcast wavelength?
Project Rho seems to be a common link, and their conclusion is that stealth in space is impossible:
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacewardetect.php
I would tend to agree for a ship which is using a lot of energy, or which is on active thrust.
There are also links to this:
http://www.rocketpunk-manifesto.com/2009/06/space-warfare-ii-stealth-reconsidered.html
Both of the preceding provide must as far as convincing calculations.
This one seemed best, in that it provides some basic calculations, and it contradicts the above in that it concludes that stealth is possible, essentially by keeping energy use low, and by pointing heat sources away from folks who you want to not see you.
http://scienceblogs.com/builtonfacts/2010/03/10/while-doing-some-poking-around/
Here is one more link:
http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/672/is-there-any-way-to-truly-hide-a-spaceship
This discussion is interesting (I'm still reading):
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.arts.sf.science/MhMfawsVuGM[1-25]
Thx!
TomB
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Azurewraith
Explorer
I enjoyed the series, was a bit to slow initially for me but it is certainly worth a watch.
