Timeline for How do spaceships determine each other's mass in space?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
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| Mar 11, 2019 at 14:31 | comment | added | Luaan | @Ghedipunk This actually makes things easier, not harder. It will also separate the heat from the power plant and engines from all the other waste heat (you don't want to mix life support heat with engine heat). Even if the ship is idling, the size of the radiators is going to give you a good idea about the kind of heat the ship is designed to release under load, which will correlate with ship profile quite well to give you a decent idea about the mass unless someone deliberately designs the ship to be awkward (e.g. space pirates, Q-boats, spy ships...). | |
| Mar 10, 2019 at 23:40 | history | edited | codeMonkey | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 1 character in body
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| Mar 8, 2019 at 22:18 | comment | added | Ghedipunk | "Unless the owner pumps air/fluids around to deliberately alter the heat transfer." -- Manned spacecraft larger than just a capsule have active radiators, from Skylab/Mir days, through the shuttle era (the shuttle's cargo bay doors were also its radiators) through the ISS and Chinese stations, and even the latest manned capsule, the Crew Dragon, has radiators. Interplanetary craft will definitely pump fluids around to alter heat transfer, whether they're doing it to intentionally mask their thermal signature or not. | |
| Mar 8, 2019 at 9:31 | comment | added | codeMonkey | @DarthDonut - but we are observing the target's current acceleration. Plant capacity doesn't matter - only current output compared to current acceleration. "Class" info is useful for understanding plant efficiency to refine our estimate, but it's hardly required. | |
| Mar 8, 2019 at 7:44 | comment | added | DarthDonut | IR won't work without additional info about vessel class and function. A small freighter and a courier ship can be the same size, but unlike the freighter the courier ship will have a bigger power plant and engines for better acceleration. | |
| Mar 7, 2019 at 23:04 | history | answered | codeMonkey | CC BY-SA 4.0 |