Sneaking onto a planet at TL 10

[Snoman314]

Isn't there a 'shielded cargo space' system or switch somewhere in spaceships specifically for things like smuggling?

[Snoman314]

Originally Posted by Snoman314

Isn't there a 'shielded cargo space' system or switch somewhere in spaceships specifically for things like smuggling?

I found it (it wasn't actually that hard).

Originally Posted by Spaceships, page 13

Shielded: Concealed and scan-shielded cargo space. Each
ton of cargo capacity sacrificed provides 0.5 tons of shielded
cargo capacity and costs $4K.

Now I know that the OP was about coming up with ways to sneak onto the surface undetected, but to be fair to smuggling, smuggling has always involved a greater or lesser degree of concealing the nature of the cargo, not always avoiding detection outright. After all, if the cargo is worth smuggling, sooner or later you're going to want to get it to a large market, well patrolled by the authorities.
How about this scenario: The source of the contraband is on a frontier world or a foreign port or some other location where the ship can fly straight in and out and not attract any attention. Then the smugglers rendezvous on a secret asteroid base and transship the cargo to ships with shielded cargo bays for the run into the immensely busy port with customs patrols and routine inspections by boarding parties, in order to sell to the the black market on the rich, decadent, core world.

[Lord Carnifex]

The other thing I can think of is to assume that surface to orbit traffic is common and easy enough to happen from any number of locations using smallish private shuttlecraft. Something like the private and corporate planes of today: sure, they may have to file a flight plan about where they're coming from and where they're going, and have to respond to traffic control if there's a problem, but they are otherwise left alone.

[Lamech]

Originally Posted by Diomedes

Most traffic will leave hyperspace at a distance of about 5 light-seconds from an Earth-type planet; anything farther is probably the result of a navigational error. There will usually be a space station in orbit, containing one or more teleportation gates to locations on the surface. A tiny, new colony will only have one settlement, and thus need only one gate, while a slightly larger one may have more settlements, some unserved by gates - until those get installed, too. Most non-paperwork related smuggling is likely to be on these types of planets.

Wait. Teleportation gates? Teleportation gates!? Simple smuggler pops out of hyperspace, activates his tele gate, sends cargo through. And then jumps out.
Or he has some cover as a different kind of ship. For example, the ship could get raw unobtanium, tele'd into his cargo hold after unloading the contraband and claim to be a cargo ship for that. Or he could claim to be a survey ship, or someone on personal business or whatever.

The other option is don't get detected. This time you simply pop out behind the moon. Even if sats are cheap, they probably aren't so cheap as to send up high tech anti-stealth sats to the other side of the moon.

[Diomedes]

Originally Posted by Lamech

Wait. Teleportation gates? Teleportation gates!? Simple smuggler pops out of hyperspace, activates his tele gate, sends cargo through. And then jumps out.

Not that simple; each gate is linked to a specific other gate, so if a smuggler carries a gate into the system, it won't take him down to the planet.

[Lamech]

Originally Posted by Diomedes

Not that simple; each gate is linked to a specific other gate, so if a smuggler carries a gate into the system, it won't take him down to the planet.

So the smuggler's have to specialize by planet?

[Diomedes]

Originally Posted by Lamech

So the smuggler's have to specialize by planet?

No, they either have to brave customs at the transfer station, or avoid the station entirely and use a shuttle.

[Lamech]

Originally Posted by Diomedes

No, they either have to brave customs at the transfer station, or avoid the station entirely and use a shuttle.

:( Well then with out some sort of cloaking stealth will be pretty hard. And since tele gates are used its not like they can get lost in the crowd of shuttles moving. Which means hiding cargo somehow.
So, basically superscience is needed to solve the problem or they need to go through customs.

[Diomedes]

Originally Posted by Lamech

:( Well then with out some sort of cloaking stealth will be pretty hard. And since tele gates are used its not like they can get lost in the crowd of shuttles moving. Which means hiding cargo somehow.
So, basically superscience is needed to solve the problem or they need to go through customs.

In that case, I suppose I need to come up with suitable limitations on cloaking devices to prevent them from being common in naval doctrine.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Diomedes

In that case, I suppose I need to come up with suitable limitations on cloaking devices to prevent them from being common in naval doctrine.

One good one that will help limit them in naval use is if they blind your sensors too. So there only good when flying a prearranged course and HOPE no one gets in the way. Still useful for some stuff but it would be more like elite high risk scouts ten normal recon and putting them on an expensive and large manned Capital ship would be a waste.

Another is they are still detectable but to specialized and very expensive sensors. So frontier planets wont have them but high value ports and military ships might. And the occasional Elite Police cruiser assigned for problem areas.