Re: Slow Stealth

IsaacKuo wrote:

>> Now the whole deal can be queered if someone happens to look at the
>> asteroid during the initial movement.
> 
> Or any time after the initial movement.  Everyone is going to have
> asteroid detectors which do NOT rely upon detecting the signature
> of a rocket drive because asteroids.  None of the current asteroid
> detection programs rely upon detecting the signature of an
> asteroid's rocket drive.

Detecting an asteroid requires you to be actually looking for it. 
"Everyone" may or may not have detectors. "Everyone" in the Indian Ocean 
should have had a tsunami network, but they didn't. If most, or all of 
the hazardous ones have been mapped, I doubt there'd be much of a 
program for new detection. There might likely be spot checks to update 
the orbits now and then.

I also assume that the nefarious bastards would darken the albedo or 
whatever it takes to make it more difficult for any program that _is_ in 
place to detect it. An accelerating asteroid is clearly odd, and points 
to skulduggery. An asteroid you aren't looking for, detected in an 
intersecting orbit, doesn't immediately say 'smoking gun', although it 
does queer the deal (if there's time).

Regards,
Jack Tingle