[Spaceships] Dealing with Cheap World-Killers?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

By Spaceships logic the frontal area would be no more than 1/3rd the surface area and possibly less. The default shape assumption in Spaceships is not spherical.

The energy released is dependent on the frontal profile of the ship. The 3 MW number uses 100 square meters as the area and was chosen as the absolute minimum amount: the ship needs to be about 10 meters across in two directions and 400 meters long to achieve this, even with the approximate density of stone. More probable is the 20x20x100 version, which gives off 12 MW (x4 surface area=4x impacts), but is still on the long and thin side.

Either way, the energy released is 30 kilowatts per square meter.

[AlexanderHowl]

An angled profile would reduce the apparent brightness by having emissions come off at an angle.

[Anaraxes]

Relativistic speeds increase brightness in the direction you're headed thanks to "relativistic beaming".

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

An angled profile would reduce the apparent brightness by having emissions come off at an angle.

given that between 1/3rd and 1/6th of your mass will be lost off the front, I think you have to deploy that shortly before you enter the system. You probably painted whatever smart camouflage you have over this pointed stealth point.

I did some digging and found another fact that makes sneaking in easier: at the termination shock for the sun, the particle density drops dramatically (one of the voyagers saw a x40 change in particle density) making you much stealthier until you're far enough in that the solar wind brings up density again. The termination shock is about 90 AU or 12 light hours out. Those are troublesome numbers: the termination shock is a huge area.