Re: FT Taskforce and Fleet Actions

I'm not sure I agree with this radiant energy inefficient drive / only
way to drive a machine is to light stuff on fire crud.

While I'll admit, solar sails aren't as useful out of system, or in
bound, they are an example of a difference.

However, assuming a fission/fusion drive (take your pick, either are
likely to be dirty) and a ship headed IN bound, with the right shielding
(Absolutely necessary to some extent just to protect the crew) why would
there be _any_ emmisions heading towards the system?  Last I checked EM
radiation doesn't bend around corners without help or special very
narrow
appatures (and I would not qualify an SDN's main engine cone to be a
narrow appature).

How about magnetic shielding that already goes on?  Shielding that
contains plasma's?  Ones that can theoretically hold point-anomalies
(not
sure that's the proper vocabulary for a tiny black hole)?

However, if you insist that it does, why not use compressed gas?
Gaussian marble throwing?  Both throw stuff, but neither emits anything
really detectable beyond a very small bit of space...

Basically, I'm trying to understand how a species who invents
hyperdrive,
gravity control, "shields," can't think of a way to hide thier
emissions.  Specifically, a species that's shown just how creative it
can
be when waging war on itself...  One that already knows the military
value of being sneaky.

Rand.

>      Unlikely. After all, if you're using constant acceleration with
> a reaction drive, your drive is putting out WAY more energy than any
> sensors you could ever hope to employ. A fusion torch in the asteroid
> belt might easily be visible to the naked eye from Earth, and even if
> you're not THAT over the top, if you're thrusting you pretty much
> can't hide. And if you're not, don't bother with the scan because if
> you're not thrusting you can't dodge.
>      This might even suggest that ships would use the biggest radar-
> equivalent they could for scans -- after all, a bit more radiant
> energy won't make that much difference. Alternately, if you're
> decelerating on your way through the belt (which any invaders may
> well be), you might not have to worry much about rocks -- anything
> that will survive your drive plume may be trivially easy to dodge
> (and reflected light will be GREAT for detecting asteroids too).
>