Re: Slow Stealth

On Feb 23, 1:23 pm, Jack Tingle <wjtin...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> IsaacKuo wrote:

> > 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.

Asteroids are enough of a threat that every planet and most
transport vessels will be keeping a keen eye out for them.

> "Everyone" may or may not have detectors. "Everyone" in the Indian Ocean
> should have had a tsunami network, but they didn't.

A tsunami warning network is expensive, and the relevant
countries were poor.  Now, it's entirely possible that an
entire planet could have a horribly backwards economy,
and the population can't even afford backyard reflector
telescopes.  They're pretty much screwed if anyone
wants to lob big rocks at them, since they won't see it
coming, stealth or no stealth.

But if a planet has enough of an economy that it's any
sort of player in the interplanetary scheme of things,
it's going to have enough of an economy for a decent
asteroid detection program (one capable of detecting
low albedo asteroids).

> 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.

Asteroids don't just orbit in perfect periodic orbits.  Their
orbits jitter and drift due to outgassing and gravitational
interactions.  Also, according to current theories there's
a constant supply of new objects from the Oort cloud.

> 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.

There are enough asteroids which have naturally low
albedo that any asteroid detection system will already
take that into consideration.

Isaac Kuo