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Hide and Seek can work in space, even without magical cloaking technology. Space is very big, so if you're far enough away it may be difficult to tell a (proper

Hide and Seek can work in space, even without magical cloaking technology. Space is very big, so if you're far enough away it may be difficult to tell a (properly designed) ship from random rocks or man-made debris unless you're looking dead at it already. Especially if you're flying in an area where lots of debris is already present, like an asteroid belt or a planet's ring. Doing it in near-earth orbit might be tricky, though, since people watch the sky a lot. Information from ground-based tracking stations could be used to identify large unknown orbiting objects.

cli 14y ago
What about the heat given off by the ship? http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacewardetect.php http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacewardetect.... Quote: "If the spacecraft are torchships, their thrust power is several terawatts. This means the exhaust is so intense that it could be detected from Alpha Centauri. By a passive sensor."
- icebraining 14y ago
  (I'm not sure if I've down or upvoted you by mistake; if the former, I'm sorry) On the other hand, and unlike here on drag land, accelerating and then shutting down the engines while proceeding at full speed is possible in space.
  - cli 14y ago
    True. However, the spacecraft would still be radiating heat for quite a while, as I suspect the primary method of heat dissipation would be radiation. I suppose the spacecraft could carry some form of coolant, and eject it once the engines are shut off, but then the spacecraft would need to eject it while it is very far away from the enemy craft lest the enemy detect the ejected hot coolant. But then the spacecraft could not alter its trajectory, and so it would have to rely on the enemy craft keeping a constant trajectory.
fafner 14y ago
We currently have a lot of technology to spot objects in space. As cli already pointed out there is the heat signature of any ship. Combined with radar it should be easy to detect ships from far away. In open space there is (probably) also no stable debris you could use. Asteroid belts are actual nothing like in the movies. There is a much bigger distance between each asteroid in the belt. http://www.scienceadviser.net/2009/09/asteroid-belt-not-as-dense-as.html http://www.scienceadviser.net/2009/09/asteroid-belt-not-as-d... Maybe the ring of a planet would work. But then the ship is at risk of being damaged by the ice and other things in the ring. And of course there are only few planetary rings compared to the rest of space.
stcredzero 14y ago
> Hide and Seek can work in space, even without magical cloaking technology You put the high-power components of the ship at the focus of a very long and narrow paraboloid with a highly reflective interior and a special absorptive and selectively emitting exterior. The whole ship will be refrigerated, with the radiator at the focus of the paraboloid. Then, all you have to do is to aim your thermal emissions in a direction your enemy isn't -- which is easy to do if your enemy doesn't have stealth. Hence, stealth will exist, but primarily as a deterrent to keep your opponent from using stealth with 100% confidence.

cli 14y ago

What about the heat given off by the ship? http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacewardetect.php http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacewardetect.... Quote: "If the spacecraft are torchships, their thrust power is several terawatts. This means the exhaust is so intense that it could be detected from Alpha Centauri. By a passive sensor."

icebraining 14y ago
(I'm not sure if I've down or upvoted you by mistake; if the former, I'm sorry) On the other hand, and unlike here on drag land, accelerating and then shutting down the engines while proceeding at full speed is possible in space.
- cli 14y ago
  True. However, the spacecraft would still be radiating heat for quite a while, as I suspect the primary method of heat dissipation would be radiation. I suppose the spacecraft could carry some form of coolant, and eject it once the engines are shut off, but then the spacecraft would need to eject it while it is very far away from the enemy craft lest the enemy detect the ejected hot coolant. But then the spacecraft could not alter its trajectory, and so it would have to rely on the enemy craft keeping a constant trajectory.

fafner 14y ago

We currently have a lot of technology to spot objects in space. As cli already pointed out there is the heat signature of any ship. Combined with radar it should be easy to detect ships from far away. In open space there is (probably) also no stable debris you could use. Asteroid belts are actual nothing like in the movies. There is a much bigger distance between each asteroid in the belt. http://www.scienceadviser.net/2009/09/asteroid-belt-not-as-dense-as.html http://www.scienceadviser.net/2009/09/asteroid-belt-not-as-d... Maybe the ring of a planet would work. But then the ship is at risk of being damaged by the ice and other things in the ring. And of course there are only few planetary rings compared to the rest of space.

stcredzero 14y ago

> Hide and Seek can work in space, even without magical cloaking technology You put the high-power components of the ship at the focus of a very long and narrow paraboloid with a highly reflective interior and a special absorptive and selectively emitting exterior. The whole ship will be refrigerated, with the radiator at the focus of the paraboloid. Then, all you have to do is to aim your thermal emissions in a direction your enemy isn't -- which is easy to do if your enemy doesn't have stealth. Hence, stealth will exist, but primarily as a deterrent to keep your opponent from using stealth with 100% confidence.