Towed Sensor Array?

[Valarian]

I'm new to Traveller and have T20, which seems a bit vague at times in rules terms.

With the Black Globes, could a starship have a cable towed sensor array - which would extend beyond the globe radius - to get around the sensor blinding? Or would the cable get cut as soon as the globe activated?

 

[mike wightman]

The cable would be cut by the black globe's field, much like the researcher who got the job of activating the first relic Ancient black globe discovered - according to a story somewhere...

 

[Andrew Boulton]

The trick is to use a free-floating sensor pod, and either

a) flicker the BG and squirt the data via lasercomm while the globe is down, or

b) keep the BG on and decode the lasercomm signal by monitoring the energy absorbed by the globe.

 

[Rossoneill]

Um if you flicker your BG you dont need external sensors ,as your regular shipboard ones work just fine (At least according to all the rules i have read)
Not sure how you could decode a signal that is absorbed by the Bg capacitors because if you tried decoding it then wouldnt all energy hitting the bg go through your equipment for decoding and fry it ?

 

[Liam Devlin]

Mssr Valarian..if ye have BG's [TL-14/15] ye should have the tech to have remote sensor drones doing the sensor sweeps for yer ship. On flicker mode you could then have these critters report to you what they 'see' and avoid the towed array deal altogether.

There's a gearhead challenge! Somebody gear up a sensor drone missile for this post!

 

[Andrew Boulton]

"Um if you flicker your BG you dont need external sensors ,as your regular shipboard ones work just fine"

The pod is watching all the time. The ship can only see out while the globe is down, and the longer it's down the greater the chance you'll be seen. This way, you only need to drop it for a second or two every few minutes (or hours).

"Not sure how you could decode a signal that is absorbed by the Bg capacitors because if you tried decoding it then wouldnt all energy hitting the bg go through your equipment for decoding and fry it ?"

You just monitor the amount of energy stored over time. The laser is firing a binary signal, one pulse (or not) every nth of a second. Decoding this should be trivial.

 

[Rossoneill]

So you have the drone programmed to follow your projected track and fire at your planned route?

 

[Andrew Boulton]

You can't manoeuvre with the BG up, so it'll drift along next to you, just outside the globe.

Ideally, you'd have a few drones surrounding you, working together as a synthetic aperture array.

 

[mike wightman]

Wouldn't an enemy then target the sensor drones, and put a few shots into their "centre of mass"

 

[Andrew Boulton]

The drones are tiny (<1 ton) and very stealthy.

 

[mike wightman]

Ahh, missile sized...

 

[Liam Devlin]

And for extra sneakiness, have one drone off on another course entirely giving off false sensor readings of yer BG'd ship...anyone fires it up..well..he/she just gave away THEIR position!

 

[Valarian]

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking whether I could do something similar to modern sub tactics (with towed sonar) for survey/intelligence missions. Flick globe on, and only flicker off to make course changes as required. Towed sensor would be passive only (so the ship can see what's around) and the globe eats all active sensor energy directed at the ship.

Sounds as if it can't be towed, so back to the drawing board. What sort of endurance do sensor drones have?

 

[tjoneslo]

A passive sensor only RTG powered drone could have a useful life span of years.

 

[mike wightman]

It would need more than an RTG plant to pull 6G though, wouldn't it?

 

[Andrew Boulton]

The drones only need basic manoeuvring capabilities. The mothership can recapture them (shouldn't take more than a few minutes) before making course changes, then release them again after.

 

[mike wightman]

So every time you make an evasive maneuver you either:
wait to collect in sensor drones,
or
lose the lot.

Not much use during combat

If they are small/cheap enough then they could be expendable...

 

[Andrew Boulton]

They're not designed for combat use. In combat, you BG would be down often enough for you to use your own sensors, and you're not trying to be stealthy.