That depends on which case of "or" you are using: "exclusive or" ("one - and only one - out of this list") or "Inclusive or" ("at least one of this list of options applies"). Same word, but different logical operations.
Detecting Weapons' Fire
- Thread starter MasterGwydion
- Start date
If you are going to take every statement I make out of context and agree in one place but then ignore that in the next line of your argument then there is no point discussing it further. I did begin to , but frankly it is pointless.Which broadcast your location.
You can make them directional and hope there are no sensors in that direction.
Because you are using the environment as a heat sink, in space that is not possible.
The heat has to go somewhere, and 2% of a terra watt is pretty easy to detect.
Again you are hoping that the system does not have sensors throughout the system, which is unlikely by the 57th century
In which case it radiates the heat.
The parabolic reflector gets hot, so radiates heat.
Ever put your hand round the back of a fridge? The heat has to go somewhere. Your are missing the fact that your ship is a closed system.
All of which requires significat mass of the ship given over to whatever internal heat sink you use, eventually your ship melts or you have to eject the heat sink or radiate the heat to space.
Reflecting heat will heat up the reflector, phase changes involve heat transfer, cooling the reflector means you are ejecting hot hydrogen into space, you can't transfer heat from cold to hot.
That is possible, but in the 57th century every system with a starport will have system wide sensors.
Agreed.
it is not a single degree, space is ~3K a ship is ~300K.
Until MgT defines its EP I have no idea, but previous editions had numbers, and then there is the conversion of power plant energy to kinetic energy of the shi...
Even if it does what happens to the heat generated after jump emergence?
Room temperature superconductors are akin to perpetual motion , unlikely to be physically possible, as to running circuits close to the hull to reduce theri temperature - where does the waste heat from the circuit go? It is radiated into space and you are a beacon again
How much ice does a Traveller starship carry as a heat sink? heat sinks are physically possible, but they will take up a significant amount of payload.
That is edition specific.
It isn't. Unless your crew enjoys an ambient temperature of 3K.
Traveller ships are not built with these mechanisms in mind, they could be but the deckplans of the type A would have to change
Regardless, in the 57th century I expect a network of sensors throughout any system with an Imperial starport.
Easily detectable - check the signal strength from Voyager.
Using CT numbers 1EP is 250MW, I have yet to see a MgT definition.
See previous answer. 250MJ per second.
it is a 300K object against a 3K background...
The laws of thermodynamics are yet to be challenged (successfully)
We have no idea of how much fusion fuel is being used in a free trader, the mechanisms we know are not modeled in Traveller.
This reminds me of a conversation once I had with a CT traveller player back in the 80's who used to bang on about how he had calculated that the gauss rifle had a recoil force of 20 tons and would kill you if you fired it. We pointed out that surely couldn't be true, but he trotted out his maths... supersonic projectile... 4mm calibre... probable length... material... density etc... equal and opposite reaction etc. and everyone agreed that it must be right. I pointed out that a conventional rifle had a much heavier bullet that also travelled supersonically but didn't kill you when you fired it. His argument was detailed and persuasive, but he failed to reference it to real life experience. That isn't you is it Steve?
You clearly have fixed ideas on how the game universe should work. I don't agree with your assumptions and I think you are misrepresenting my argument in order to dismantle it word by word rather than consider it holistically.
I specifically disagree with your assumptions about the ubiquity of sensors. We were talking about a shop detecting another ship, not system wide sensor network. Sensor networks also have issues with communications speeds which make them useless for detecting where a ship is now (vs there might have been one there n minutes ago). Space combat takes place at speeds that makes your position only 6 minutes ago a historic artifact, not useful targeting information so relayed sensor information is not going to help you.
I also disagree with your assertion regarding the thermal energy generated by space ships as they are not compatible with the fuel available, nor are they compatible with lived experience. We have had manned space flight for decades and astronauts are not routinely cooked during even long term missions. It is therefore not a given that they need to be in the future.
Voyager is not detectable thermally according to my information (even by the James Webb telescope). It is actively beaming signals to us so detecting it is less challenging but that is also using radio waves not IR.
With respect to thermal separation, Thermos flasks enable you to hold hot liquid without burning your hands. You only need a few mm of vacuum to drop 100 degrees. Dewar flasks hold liquid gases with far greater temperature differentials quite happily for extended periods. We don't need to alter ship deck plans to accommodate this as the tonnage doesn't include the hull itself unless you fit special options. Any default cooling and thermal interfacing could be in all the grey (or brown) bits round the outside of the bits we actually bother to map.
You keep mentioning the "laws of thermodynamics" but never actually state what laws you say I am breaking. I suspect that is because nothing I said is breaking them. They are quite simple and easy to navigate but also apply to ideal systems in thermal equilibrium. No engineering solution has ever been an ideal system as they are not in thermal equilibrium and you need to consider time (rather than just the start and end state).
CT had some yampy numbers but as is was a 1970's game based on 1950's science fiction filled with space magic* written by someone who was not necessarily up with current physics theory, we can forgive it for being a bit off on the science. Most of us who played it in the 80s were not physicists either (and those that were up to date on the latest physics theories were still thinking in 1980's physics) and we didn't have the internet to find facts and counter opinions instantaneously. We do not need to perpetuate Olde Lore into new editions (or we may as well just play the old versions) especially as Olde Lore changed between edition.
I am happy with my arguments and conclusions. I'd like there to be more data but there isn't. I'll leave them here for the consideration of the wider community.
*Gravitics adds a massive dose of "dunno" and could be used to solve almost any problem including deflecting IR (and even potentially pushing heat up hill).
