Human Treecat Names

cthia wrote:Shouldn't those same dust clouds impede Haven's own sensors? Like when Kirk took a wounded Enterprise into the Mutara Nebula (dust clouds) to even the odds against Khan.

From seeing through the clouds and out, yes, it'll be degraded. But not from seeing inside of the cloud bubble. The solar wind from the primary will push the dust cloud to a bubble around it, so the inner system will be free of dust.

That doesn't stop repeaters, though. You can always place your sensors outside of the cloud and send information back.

In any case, we are probably talking about gravitic sensors here and there's no telling how the dust cloud would affect them.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:Finding the location of Bolthole would be a major coup, but not very actionable. The Sanctuary system is surrounded by thick clouds of gas, so a ship passing through will be detectable, stealth or no stealth.

tlb wrote:Finding the location of bolthole would leave it open to a Oyster Bay type of attack. A low speed ballistic entry would not affect the dust clouds enough to be detectable and the orbital factories and shipyards would be easy to find.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:I doubt it. It would need to be slower than Voyager 1 to not disturb the dust clouds. That means it would take a year or two to cross them. The next problem is that the stealth ships need to emit excess heat in some direction, but all directions reflect back in a scattered fashion due to those clouds.

cthia wrote:Shouldn't those same dust clouds impede Haven's own sensors? Like when Kirk took a wounded Enterprise into the Mutara Nebula (dust clouds) to even the odds against Khan.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:From seeing through the clouds and out, yes, it'll be degraded. But not from seeing inside of the cloud bubble. The solar wind from the primary will push the dust cloud to a bubble around it, so the inner system will be free of dust.

That doesn't stop repeaters, though. You can always place your sensors outside of the cloud and send information back.

In any case, we are probably talking about gravitic sensors here and there's no telling how the dust cloud would affect them.

No, we were actually talking about visual effects at first; either a bow wave or large scale dust disturbances, as well as thermal effects.

tlb wrote:No, we were actually talking about visual effects at first; either a bow wave or large scale dust disturbances, as well as thermal effects.

I thought he meant the sensors that would detect the hyper transitions. That's what I meant when I said there's no telling how they would be affected by the dust clouds.

The EM sensors aren't very good at detecting stealth ships more than a light-second out. Even very finely tuned, orbital sensors wouldn't see anything more than a light-minute out. So those stealth ships shouldn't be worried about direct detection once they're in the bubble.

If you meant those sensors seeing the dust cloud disturbances and how the cloud itself would obscure the sensors, then I admit I hadn't thought of it. However, I don't think it matters, because the attacking stealth ship must exit the cloud into the bubble, at which point the cloud is not obscuring anything. The disturbance of its passage should be fairly visible, forming a clear tunnel and rippling out, plus the bowshock.

I'm also assuming such a ship made this portion of the transit ballistically. Any active drive would disturb the cloud far more: a thruster/reaction drive would push the cloud, and a tractor like the spider would probably pull on it (the latter is of course subject to the Plot Device).

The next problem I now realise is that this is probably VERY far away. It's at least a light-hour from the primary, probably two, possibly as much as 6, closing on the astropause. If those are light-speed sensors, a QRF would take N hours + 15 minutes to arrive, which could mean the stealth ship has left the region where the dust cloud would reveal it.