Timeline for Stealth in Space: How realistic is it?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
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| Feb 10, 2017 at 17:44 | comment | added | Sir Cornflakes | "once you are detetected, you stay detected forever" is not necessarily true. There are some detected asteroids (coming really near to the Earth) whose orbits could not be reliably determined and that got lost in space again. | |
| Oct 9, 2015 at 12:06 | comment | added | Angelo Fuchs | @Peteris Yes, but it doesn't matter. Because as the mighty pirate captain I am, I have a second ship thats larger then my attack vessel. I only need to steer to it. Dock there ("That exhaust was a malfuctioning something, we got it under control now." when somebody asks) and now I have laundered my traces to a ship thats legally there and have the stolen fright with me. Hiding "A bit" is far enough. (Compare the Cosa Nostra in NY in the early 20th century, that operated with legal firms as cover) | |
| Oct 9, 2015 at 11:59 | comment | added | Peteris | @AngeloFuchs yes and no - yes, inaccuracies and small adjustments will mean that you can change the course and in a month or so you'll be 'somewhere within a million miles' and not easily findable; however, space is very vast and very empty - if you're seen moving in a rough direction of a planet/large asteroid/space station/mothership/whatever, then you can't go to a different interesting point without a significant, visible maneuver. Assuming that you intend to go to a particular place and not live in empty space forever, your movements between such points can be traced. | |
| Oct 9, 2015 at 11:08 | comment | added | Angelo Fuchs | Yes! for the last bullet, but NO of the "stay detected" thing. I can fling some not so huge chunk of ambient temperature rock into some direction and will go in the other way. While that will change my course only slightly, it should be enough to not be where you expect me, a month or so later. Then its time to fire the engines. - So, yeah most of all ships will not be able (or desire to) evade the sensors of the stations. But its not impossible. | |
| Aug 26, 2015 at 12:11 | comment | added | user | "The only thing that a perfectly stealthy ship can do is float in a straight line" It's a small detail, but since we are in hard-science territory here: The ship would be travelling along its current orbit, not in what we would normally think of as a straight line. Compare Why does a spacecraft use a curved orbit to go to its destination, instead of traveling in a straight line? on Space Exploration. | |
| Aug 25, 2015 at 21:48 | history | edited | Peteris | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 25, 2015 at 21:23 | history | edited | Peteris | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 25, 2015 at 21:12 | history | answered | Peteris | CC BY-SA 3.0 |