10-30-2020, 11:51 AM | #21 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
|
Re: [Spaceships] Sneaking up on a Megastructure
We don't do it real time which is what you wanted the AIs to be doing. Heck, now you've got them being Arisians "sensing" things over thousands of LY.
__________________
Fred Brackin |
10-30-2020, 12:36 PM | #22 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
|
Re: [Spaceships] Sneaking up on a Megastructure
Quote:
|
|
10-30-2020, 01:37 PM | #23 |
Join Date: May 2009
|
Re: [Spaceships] Sneaking up on a Megastructure
Why is it 4700 light years?
|
10-30-2020, 01:48 PM | #24 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
|
Re: [Spaceships] Sneaking up on a Megastructure
I believe that is 30 million AU (-95 to detect).
|
10-30-2020, 02:44 PM | #25 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
|
Re: [Spaceships] Sneaking up on a Megastructure
The main problem for the AIs is that this isn't really an AI problem, it's a hardware problem; no quantity of AI can make up for insufficient data. A SM+2 probe at 1 AU will have an apparent magnitude of around 30, and can be detected by 2-3 meter optics if you spend enough time looking (e.g. Hubble Deep Field), though you'd need something like ten thousand of them to monitor the entire sky (no new tech required, just lots of money).
A deep space object at 10,000 AU, if not internally powered, has +20 apparent magnitude from distance (increasing our 2 meter optics to 20 kilometers), and another +20 apparent magnitude for temperature (magnitude 70, increasing the optics to 200,000 kilometers). Our probe probably can't actually run that cool, if we set it to a mere magnitude 55 we can make do with 200 kilometer optics (and as we noted above, 10,000 of them). Is that doable at TL 12? Eh, maybe. Current curves suggest that max practical telescope size should be something like TL*2-12 (so SM+4 today, or about 10 meters, and a mere 200 meters at TL 12), but you can certainly justify other numbers. |
10-30-2020, 03:15 PM | #26 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
|
Re: [Spaceships] Sneaking up on a Megastructure
Quote:
__________________
“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Marcus Aurelius |
|
10-30-2020, 03:21 PM | #27 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
|
Re: [Spaceships] Sneaking up on a Megastructure
Well, the IR lasers are a problem. Directional emissions are not a problem per se as long as they don't have intensity exceeding the normal brightness of an object that size.
|
10-30-2020, 03:23 PM | #28 | |
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Niagara, Canada
|
Re: [Spaceships] Sneaking up on a Megastructure
Quote:
This doesn't allow for true stealth in space against a well-equipped opposing force because it's relatively easy to scatter sensor platforms across a wide area, enough of them to get intercepted by any feasible heat-emission cone. ... Of course, trying to do the same for a SM+53 Matrioshka Brain, which emits a star's entire output as heat, adds a new set of challenges, and it seems unlikely to be worth the required effort.
__________________
Thank you for your time, -- DataPacRat "Then again, maybe I'm wrong." |
|
10-30-2020, 03:42 PM | #29 |
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Niagara, Canada
|
Re: [Spaceships] Sneaking up on a Megastructure
For some quick figuring of the probe detecting a Matrioshka Brain, I'm getting the factors:
Base skill 12 Single-Minded +3 Size +53 Time Spent 30 minutes +5 Range 25 lightyears (150T mi) -103 Array Level +2 Zooming in on target star +2 In Plain Sight +10 In Space +24 IR Signature +10 = effective skill 18 at 25 lightyears. ... Can anyone tell me if I'm getting any of that wrong?
__________________
Thank you for your time, -- DataPacRat "Then again, maybe I'm wrong." |
10-30-2020, 05:08 PM | #30 |
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Niagara, Canada
|
Re: [Spaceships] Sneaking up on a Megastructure
Can anyone think of how to adapt the 'Interstellar Signal Detection' guidelines in SS5 p32 to snagging whatever transmissions spill out of a Matrioshka Brain? Eg, what should I count the MB's population as, and does it count as having a spaceport?
(For this part, I'm mainly interested in how far out the probe would be when it most likely starts collecting language samples to start decrypting and analyzing with the Linguistic Assessment rules, a few pages later.)
__________________
Thank you for your time, -- DataPacRat "Then again, maybe I'm wrong." |
|
|