Stealth in Space: How realistic is it?

This has been considered other places on the net, but I thought it would be good for the hard-science challenge, since it is often an example of the subtle difference between soft and hard science.

Okay, so you have your spacey ship in outer space. Then it is reported that space pirates have come to pirate our space goods. Time to turn the space stealth on!

Is this possible?

• The spacey ship needs to keep the people inside alive.
• Ideally, the spacey ship needs to keep the people inside alive, and able to carry out their normal duties.
• Ideally$\times 2$, the spacey ship needs to keep the people inside alive, able to carry out their normal duties, and keep their sensors on.
• Ideally$\times 3$, the spacey ship needs to keep the people inside alive, able to carry out their normal duties, keep their sensors on, and still able to maneuver.

The more Ideally's you get, the better.

They also can't hide behind or in front of things. You never know when space pirates are going to strike. The space pirates know how stealth techs work, so if there is a sensor that sense cloaked ships, that's the sensor they'll have, within reason (they probably wouldn't have gravity sensors). The only other thing is their sensors are passive, so they can't splash paint everywhere (space pirates have stealth too!)

If any other details are needed, just ask in the comments.

This is hard-science physics and astrophysics (and for keeping alive, biology is needed.)

NOTE: I suspect the answer is no. If the answer is no, the best answer would be the most thorough explanation as to why its no.

posted about 9 years ago

PyRulez‭

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