On Feb 23, 3:42 pm, Luke Campbell <lwc...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Feb 23, 5:21 am, Jack Tingle <wjtin...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > Mass drivers probably have the lowest radiated signature of any
> > propulsion system.
>
> Nah, because you need to power the mass driver with something else.
> Fission? You have a waste heat of about twice your usable electric
> work that you can pump into the mass driver (maybe only about equal
> to, but slightly greater than, your electric work if you use an
> advanced helium cooled high temperature fast reactor). In this case a
> nuke-thermal drive is actually stealthier than a mass driver, because
> the nuke thermal exhaust comes out hot, and the exhaust cools the
> reactor so you don't need radiators. Hot means a higher peak black
> body spectrum, which means fewer photons radiated per unit energy
> produced. Fewer photons means a lower signal to noise ratio. You are
> also able to turn maybe 80% to 90% of the thermal power into useful
> work, so only 10% to 20% of the total thermal power is radiated away
> (mostly in the drive plume which, as I mentioned, is hot).
>
> Now the bit about keeping the radiators edge on to your observer is
> clever, but as others have noted it is not particularly effective
> assuming a civilization with an extensive presence in space. And if
> they don't have an extensive presence in space while you are capable
> of moving asteroids, you probably out-class them so badly that there
> is no need to be stealthy.
>
> Luke
I imagine this is a game where people try to keep tabs on everyone
else's sensors. They themselves radiate, after all, more-so if they
have maneuvering capability. If not, keep track of the ships that
might place them in strategic orbits. Also, no matter how far-flung
your net is, it can easily be foiled by maneuvering outside the convex
hull formed by the individual units.
Of course, coff, in real-life, the notion of any sort of manned space
war seems very unlikely. War-craft might very well be at ambient
temperature and use something like a mag-sail for propulsion. Pretty
hard to detect one of those, at least in comparison with anything else
discussed so far.
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