An issue of late is the detection of ships.
Traveller ships produce and consume ferocious amounts of energy - to the point where whatever radiators the things are using might well be glowing in the visible light spectrum. Mighty hard to hide something that bright, but there are ways - shield the emitter so it only appears from certain angles, for example. However, that doesn't mean the rest of the ship isn't putting out infrared ...
... or does it?
I will freely admit my limited knowledge of infrared detection. I know bits and pieces, this scope can do that, aerogel does this, and so forth. Putting it all together is a good bit beyond the talents of a career bureaucrat whose favorite hobbies trend more toward sociology, history and astronomy.
So, question on the floor is this:
A ship must radiate. Of that there is absolutely no doubt - the alternative is to roast crew and passengers alike, and rather quickly when one factors in the power plant radiation. The black globe offers a possible short-term solution, but of course that energy needs to be stored (though there is a certain elegant and somewhat physics-defying efficiency in radiating that energy only to have it collected by the globe and channeled back into your power grid).
However, barring a BG, do physics and materials sciences foresee the possibility of a ship radiating selectively? Can one side be insulated to the point that it can not be detected? Can emitters be placed to radiate in wavelengths that create interference patterns to confuse and clutter the IR signature? Can the insulating properties of a hull be rapidly modified in a way that changes the amount and wavelength of energy emitted, and would this have the effect of confusing sensors as to the real range of the ship? Could an infrared beam of appropriate wavelength and intensity fired at a ship by, say, a countermeasures canister effectively blind the ship's infrared sensors and act as an active IR jammer? Could a cloud of an IR-absorbing gas mask a ship for the brief while the cloud persisted?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Traveller ships produce and consume ferocious amounts of energy - to the point where whatever radiators the things are using might well be glowing in the visible light spectrum. Mighty hard to hide something that bright, but there are ways - shield the emitter so it only appears from certain angles, for example. However, that doesn't mean the rest of the ship isn't putting out infrared ...
... or does it?
I will freely admit my limited knowledge of infrared detection. I know bits and pieces, this scope can do that, aerogel does this, and so forth. Putting it all together is a good bit beyond the talents of a career bureaucrat whose favorite hobbies trend more toward sociology, history and astronomy.
So, question on the floor is this:
A ship must radiate. Of that there is absolutely no doubt - the alternative is to roast crew and passengers alike, and rather quickly when one factors in the power plant radiation. The black globe offers a possible short-term solution, but of course that energy needs to be stored (though there is a certain elegant and somewhat physics-defying efficiency in radiating that energy only to have it collected by the globe and channeled back into your power grid).
However, barring a BG, do physics and materials sciences foresee the possibility of a ship radiating selectively? Can one side be insulated to the point that it can not be detected? Can emitters be placed to radiate in wavelengths that create interference patterns to confuse and clutter the IR signature? Can the insulating properties of a hull be rapidly modified in a way that changes the amount and wavelength of energy emitted, and would this have the effect of confusing sensors as to the real range of the ship? Could an infrared beam of appropriate wavelength and intensity fired at a ship by, say, a countermeasures canister effectively blind the ship's infrared sensors and act as an active IR jammer? Could a cloud of an IR-absorbing gas mask a ship for the brief while the cloud persisted?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Or is that 6?):devil:
