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Originally Posted by dynaman
For 1, the "real" ships are going to need some kind of way to make them radiate less heat, in the direction of the known enemies.
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The problem with that is that you simply
can't make yourself look "hotter" than you are by directing your radiation. Sensors can still determine how hot you are, and radiating in a specific direction just makes you easier to pick out. Essentially, radiation is composed of both "brightness" (how many particles are falling in a given area, and "intensity" (how much energy any given particle has). Sensors can tell the difference. And it's the intensity you have to make your decoys match, not the brightness.
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Originally Posted by dynaman
Or go ahead and crank up the heat on the decoys, it will be cheaper then more real combatants.
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I doubt it. You're basically talking about doubling the mass you have to haul around, plus putting a fairly expensive engine in each decoy. And then just sending them on random maneuvers. Instead of making one ship and 19 decoys, why not just make 20 ships? It won't be
that much more expensive, and that way a lucky shot can't stop your mission immediately.
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Originally Posted by dynaman
The important point is that if it is possible then it will be tried. It may not fool anyway at short range, but at long range it may make all the difference
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The problem is, in space "short range" is a
lot longer than you might think. For example, consider the space shuttle. Its main thrusters could be detected out at the orbit of Pluto, and its maneuvering thrusters at the asteroid belt.
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Originally Posted by dynaman
I may be off base, but I doubt that space detection is anywhere near as cut and dried as we make it out to be - sure we see lots of rocks at a long distance currently, but we miss a good number still as well.
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Yes, but none of those rocks are blazing away at temperatures capable of supporting life. Seriously, check out that page I linked to. It goes into all this - stealth in space is depressingly implausible, given non-superscience assumptions.