2070 Megacorp Challenge

[Top8]

Welcome prospective Moguls!

Since this is a KSP challenge section I have a challenge for all of you. An educational project I am coordinating hinges on getting volunteer developers to submit concept art - namely space ship and station designs. The details are available here:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/67002-Visions-of-2070

The challenge is to create at least one design in each of the ship types (except Orion Coupler) and one station types as if you were a space mega-corp in 2070. Each ship or station has to have between 100 and 300 parts and short notes (as per the format in the document) that explains how it is a vialble product in that industrial category. Quality matters. Unless using blender it is not recommended that hab-spheres (see below) are modeled. Hab-spheres are simply too large to model normally in KSP.

The first 5 challengers to complete to desgin challenge get to create a mega-corpration which I will write into my fictional setting. You can also describe the key individuals that lead the corporation and I will write them into the series of short stories I am working on.

Looking forward to seeing the corporate leaders of 2070 emerge!

Edited February 1, 2014 by Top8

[Top8]

The ship and station types (from the VDP refrence lined on the Visions of 2070 Thread):

2.3 Ship and Station Types - These standard types of ships and stations allow for many possible designs within them large and small. A class in this sense is simply a matter of general function in the location(s) / environments where the designs are intended to function. Location are presented as "real location (KSP location)" noting that our settings happen in the real solar system but those using Kerbal Space Program (KSP) will be designing their ships for location analogs in that virtual environment. An example of this is Mars (Duna) where Duna is a Mars-like world in the KSP simulation.

Note on transit shields and sails: Two of the obvious ship features of many ships in 2070 are transit shields and sails. Transit shields are strong forward facing ablative structures required when ships start to travel at speeds that enable even moderately fast transits across the system. Transit shields are heavy and fast ships are streamlined so they have minimal forward profiles and smaller shields. Sails, namely microwave beam-rider sails http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/projects/project-forward/ and magsails http://www.esa.int/Education/Magnetic_sails are also common. Sails allow ships to break the rocket equation by not carrying all the reaction mass they would otherwise need to travel at the speeds expected in 2070. The Benford Sail Network of microwave power beams in "node house" stations routinely accelerate and decelerate ships from mercury to the belt. Some stations also have sails and shielding but adapted for slightly different purposes such as magnetic sails to correct orbits without using fuel and a strong directional shield if the area (i.e. in the belt) has regular hazards such as clouds of micro-meteors.

Common Ship Types: In 2070 the economics of space is focused on three activities: Lunar zone manufacturing, Belt resource extraction and Martian research. There are secondary activities such as Belt heavy industry, Inner system power satellites, Mercury mining, Mars colonization, Outer system exploration and more but the economy is triangular. The moon's Lunar Economic Zone provides the light strong alloys and developed industrial base that can launch products off the lunar surface by magnetic accelerator tracks. Asteroid Belt mining provides the Earth and Moon with the heavy metals, rare earths, radioactive elements and volatile ices that industry cannot survive without. Mars is the focus of an incredible research effort focused on the analysis of the microbial life that is found there and a technology test bed for what could be large Martian cities in the next century. Large stations on cycler orbits bring them close to the Lunar Economic Zone and many distant stops in the Belt and near Mars like a railroad. The ships of 2070 reflect these booming economies and the desire of people to endure risk for the promise of rich returns.

• Cycler Tradehull - A.k.a. Tradehulks are bulk non-perishable goods and passengers looking for cheap but very slow passage across the system take cycler stations like a railroad. A large number of modular systems are usually the norm to help with field maintenance. Getting to and from the cyclers is the province of the tradehulls. They don't need to be fast so they don't need big transit shields. What they are is cost efficient, so life on a tradehull is often the worst condition a space can tolerate. Pay is not very good but the ships don't have to be new either. Tradehulls are always near a cycler or a cycler town. With the rising outlaw activity in 2070 these vessels often operate in convoys and mount whatever weaponry their limited power and thermal management systems will allow. Large convoys sometimes run with hired Marshalls - Lawmen who are well paid to do long investigations or hang around for other legal reasons that don't violate their law-enforcement status.

• Mars (Duna) Shuttle - Designed to slice the thin atmosphere of Mars these aerodynamic ships allow quick and easy access to the Martian surface. Though similar to space planes designed for the thicker atmosphere of Earth the lower Martian Gravity means they are always single stage to orbit vessels with good payload capacities. They tend to run on Sabatier reactor type reaction mass (Martial Fuel) and Thorium reactors so can operate independently for long periods. Many of these vessels favour modular systems because that allows for repairs in the field - sometimes Martian landings are rocky. These ships also tend to have much larger aerodynamic control surfaces than an equivalent Terran space plane would due to the thin atmosphere. Very large Mars shuttles that carry water ice, carbon compounds and minerals to orbit are quite common as Mars has just become a commercially viable source of many commodities by 2070.

• Lunar (Mun) Shuttle - A.k.a. Landers this style of ship is used on many airless low-G or micro-G locations. A wide variety of designs, sizes and models of lander exist. Large industrial types can carry huge loads of delicate cargo that would not survive launch from a mass driver. Many ships often mount small landers, some of these being so small they are built into other modular systems on large vessels.

• Discus Cruiser -A.k.a. the Terran Cruiser or AOAN Cruiser since the Alliance has invested considerable research into the set of integrated systems that make up the discuss hull. A disk shaped hull results in a small forward profile and a light transit shield. Decades of engineering refinement mean these hulls are incredibly strong and light while mounting all manner of ore systems in very efficient layouts. The grav-paths within the hull are multiple tube trains that race round to simulate gravity though the entire ship is also designed to make use of acceleration for grav. The strong hulls can mount powerful drives and large sails so that acceleration can often be in the high Gs. The core static decks are fitted with liquid gel acceleration tanks that feed breathing gas to occupants while protecting them in form fitting shapes. These tanks also purify water for the ship and serve as control equipped hard radiation shelters for long emergency stays.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the AOAN has created an industry around the discus cruiser and the closely related discus station design concept. Due to availability of standard components they are easy to maintain and given they can almost always provide plenty of Earth normal gravity with little coriolis disorientation the crews of Terran cruisers can come right from earth with little micro-grav training. This advantage allows the AOAN to draw from the best and brightest of 11 billion Terrans to crew its vessels.

• Darkship - Though expensive and reliant on beam sails for most of their propulsions there are small stealth ships with technologies such as directional thermal radiators, cryogenic hulls and exotic (though inefficient) flare-less "cold" drives to covertly change vectors after their push out from a beam network node. Note that darkships are rarely invisible to stations but ships with mediocre sensor arrays could overlook them. Only the best military darkships, for example, have hulls that can match the cosmic microwave background temperature acre and they are usually small automated couriersthat already run cool. The real advantage a darkship has is effective use of decoys. The ship and the decoys can use the same inexpensive sails to ride power beams. The darkship itself can modify its emissions / thermal signature so that inexpensive decoys can be used. Decoys are usually expensive because they must match the signature of the target ship but darkships can reduce their signature to match that of the small, low power, cheap decoy.

• Deep Trader - a.k.a. Far Traders - These ships with powerful drives and synchronized beam sails are fitted for speed and endurance. The balance of these two factors is essential in deep space commercial ventures where an urgent delivery past the easy access of the inner system could mean huge profits. These ships also tend to be jacks of all trades as the first generation of true deep traders is now solidly circulating on the used ship markets. Second generation designs benefit from many hard lessons learned in the 2050s-60s and are some of the

• Needle Sprinter -A new design based on using a needle drone traveling ahead of the ship to cast a cone of fine ice crystals backward as a shield for the main vessel. The needle drone is a long spear of ice reinforced with composite mesh layers and the main ship usually has several. The effect of this complex arrangement is a main vessel with a very light transit shield and a very high potential speed.

• Industrial Carrier - In the belt drones and work-ships need to be serviced. Workers need a place to call home when on the move. These simple facts have resulted in a wide range of industrial carrier ships that form the backbone of industry across the belt. There are even industrial carriers around the moon because rights to an orbital station are incredibly difficult to secure for any amount of AOAN credit.

• Military Carrier -Packed with deadly long range cutters, dronedeckers and boarding shuttles only the AOAN has military carriers. It is the carrier groups supported by these incredibly expensive and capable vessels that keep lesser nations locked down on Earth and support the system of Marshals - contract lawmen that bring their special brand of justice to the solar system. Note that military vessels rarely intervene directly in legal matters except where there is risk to populations, major AOAN assets or the economy. AOAN Military Carriers in 2070 tend to be multi-discus designs where the diameter of each individual discus has reached optimal levels for the gravity trains to operate within them. This results in multiply redundant systems in each sub-hull that make the ship incredibly resilient.

• Dronedecker - These specialized carriers are a recent trend that has a majority of systems dedicated to drones. These are highly automated vessels that are also designed to be difficult to board due to layers of machine wrapping internal crewed spaces. Military dronedeckers also have incredible electronic warfare suites, optical communication systems, and sensors to run their drone fleets from well outside enemy range.

• Magsail Prospector - With magnetic sails to slowly surf the protons of solar wind these long duration scouts use sophisticated sensors to scour the system for resources. Modern prospectors actually use a hybrid magnetic sail - microwave sail capable of harnessing a power beam at extremely long ranges. Even in 2070 very little of the system has been mapped in what constitutes modern detail. Scanning gear takes expertise to use correctly and data must be guarded in order to protect the next lucky strike.

• Relay Nodeship - Cargo grade mass drivers are not mounted on ships, rather ships are built around mass driver cores. With incredible accuracy mass drivers move a huge tonnage of commodity products around the solar system by firing them through spindly magnetic coil cannon kilometers long. This launch frame often trails the ship in order to shelter behind forward transit shields.

• Beam Nodeship - In the same way that Relay Nodeships are built around a central or "spinal" mount mass driver Beam Nodeships are built around a power beam array. These mobile arrays are not as powerful as the big Benford stations but a ship can itself ride a beam or use drives to follow what it pushes. This approach is relatively new but allows an approach something like the way chemical rockets used to be "staged". Use of a ship like this can be an incredible delta-V boost but captains are reminded that slowing down may be a problem. Aerobraking disasters at Mars have already happened as reckless speedsters looking to break records misjudged a tricky deceleration.

• Science Cruiser - A wide range of vessels are often adapted as science cruisers. Outlaw vessels often pose as research ships since it makes perfect sense that a ship with extensive sensor arrays and unusual configuration would be perfect for long science missions in space. Everything else about science vessels depends on the history of the ship and the real mission objectives it has. In response to recent increase in outlaw activities Marshals are tending to mount enough scientific equipment on their ships to qualify as "science vessels" even though their investigations are often more forensic than anything else. Registration as a science vessel can, in some cases, allow for experimental equipment that would otherwise be mildly illegal in the eyes of the military.

• Ice Hauler - Massive ships dedicated to haul ice from the outer belt and beyond. Ice Haulers are the largest ships owned by private corporations. Powerful drives and specialized industrial equipment along with some means of generating gravity for long missions are the common features on most Ice Haulers. Many specialized crew, different drone types and a variety of refining equipment to make use of all the different forms of ice and volatiles make these ships mobile industrial hubs.

• Hospital Ship - Health care is not free and advanced medical equipment is valuable enough that a few dedicated hospital ships have been created for the largest corporations and the AOAN military. These also tend to function as research hospitals. The one common denominator is that these ships all have high quality pseudo-gravity whether by spin or internal train runs. The reason is that truly sophisticated 2070 medicine still requires gravity as Earth medical procedures have not all been adapted to space.

• Orion Coupler - Orion drive ships like the Charon Revelation are massive vessels driven by external nuclear combustion. They have only even been built by the AOAN and have literally pushed whole military bases out into the solar system and returned with payloads in the thousands of tons. These are the most sophisticated, well equipped and powerful vessels humanity has. They are called couplers because they literally dock with space stations or huge cargo bundles in a special "coupling" configuration that can resist massive acceleration stress. The original Orion couplers used small H type nuclear charges as fuel pellets though by 2070 the military has developed reliable laser confinement fusion drives.

• Cloud-Skim - Used to scoop chemicals and gases from Venusian, and to a lesser extent Jovian, atmospheres this relatively new class of ship uses highly specialized, sleek drones the cut through atmospheres like daggers. Specialized equipment is required to process the payloads and maintain the high performance drones.

• Solar Miner - These ships are designed to deploy, repair and even manufacture solar thermal mirror clouds in the belt. Larger solar miners even mount powerful solar pumped lasers that can be staggeringly effective weapons if the ship retains control over its cloud or mini-mirrors. These ships can often manufacture low to medium grade mirrors directly from asteroid tailing and ore slag right in the belt.

• Fast Liner - The rich and powerful often feel the need to travel in style and safety. Fast ships with spacious decks that are also well shielded from radiation end up being large, sophisticated and expensive. Fast Liners are impressive ships that often showcase the latest technologies. They also tend to mount as much weaponry and defensive gear as is legally allowed because their passengers are very important people. In the last few years there have been a handful of outlaw attacks on Fast Liners that always end in the swift demise of the outlaws in question.

• Drydocker - A mobile dry-dock loaded with heavy repair equipment. Though modular systems can be swapped out anywhere, sleeker core systems on many vessels require dry-dock facilities when major repair or refit is required. Small to medium drydockers with enough agility and delta-V budget are sometimes outfitted with specialized salvage gear. Large drydockers are often industrial carriers in their own right and will carry salvage drones.

Common Station Types: Stations are simply large ships with small drives not typically suitable for anything but small orbital adjustments. Stations typically have large solar PV, thermal radiator and magnetic sail arrays.

• M-Station - Almost entirely modular these sorts of constructions are ideal for remote areas where heavy repair ships don't travel and specialized parts are rare. These stations can literally look like anything as modules are combined and modified to fit the purpose or desire of their inhabitants.

• Node House - A station hosting power beam and / or mass driver relay facilities. These are often equipped with significant solar power arrays or power receivers to tap power-sat feeds and magsails that allow for near perpetual station keeping or extremely slow adjustment maneuvers.

• Grand Cycler - Like a Mississippi riverboat or luxury steam liner of centuries past these are often the most luxurious habitats in space. They can also be dusty, oily trade towns where the working poor of space barely make passage to a bright future in the Belt or on Mars. These are massive modular stations with huge rotating grav decks, massive radiation proof habitats and colossal cargo port structures. They have tremendous solar arrays and manifold magsails for gentle but constant course corrections that keep them on perpetual orbits cycling round and round like railroads to space. Once something is boosted onto a cycler it can more or less stay, though some less stable orbits do require enough course correction to make carrying dead weight costly (http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/moon-mars/2076326, https://engineering.purdue.edu/people/james.m.longuski.1/JournalArticles/1993/CyclerOrbitbetweenEarthandMars.pdf )

• Research Array - Many research stations are so heavy on communications, sensors, solar power and thermal radiators that they are called "Arrays" by spacers due to the vast number of quasi-symmetrical gadgets sticking out. Research stations also happen to be one of the best places to get the latest data or software from Earth-side.

• Defense Discus - Mirroring the shape of the familiar Discuss cruiser so favoured by the AOAN these stations share common components and repair facilities with those vessels. The Discus stations are often moved to far off locales via massive nuclear driven coupler ships and older stations end up being built into cycler grav wheels. Discuss stations typical do not rotate however, as they have counter-rotating trains running round inside them to provide artificial gravity in the train cars while the station stays still.

• Hab-Ring - This is the classic rotating ring space station in various forms. The visuals from Kubrick's 2001 and the vision of early science fiction writers is reality by 2070. Hab-Rings often have large interior spaces with rich permaculture farms and garden pharmacies that support permanent presence in the belt, the inner system and even around Mars.

• Hab-Sphere - Larger than Hab rings these massive stations have been made by literally smelting nickel iron asteroid rubble in place and inflating them into huge shells of solid steel. In 2070 two of the five Hab-spheres are found at the L4 and L5 LaGrange points. These massive stations - at three kilometer diameter each - have been in place since 2067. Not actually true spheres they are rather short cylinders with open semi-dome ends their shapes provide a larger interior plane for construction in Earth normal gravity and an immensely strong structure. Since the outer shell slowly rotates docking is facilitated by a stationary docking complex in addition to trickier docking options on the outer surface. These stations are still undergoing massive development with plenty of room still being held by speculators or reserved for future AOAN military or Lunar Zone Authority expansion. Known as L-Spheres 4 and 5 (L-S-4, L-S-5) these are already bustling centers of commerce. L-S-4 already has one of the best clubs in space: Lepton's. Note that engineering challenges still make O'Neil style cylinders are still somewhat beyond the resources of 2070 engineering and planners are said to simply not trust large open designs. Two more of these stations are in the belt on the B-5 and B-9 cycler nexus orbits and the last is still under construction in Mars orbit.

Note on Cyclertowns - Just like the railroad in 'Wild West' America grew towns on it iron tracks so are cycler stations resulting in settlement in many orbits that are close enough to trade with multiple cyclers. These are beacons of civilization in the belt despite conditions that often offend the delicate sensibilities of Earthers. By the time most people arrive in town, however, they have been on a cycler for more than a year and are happy to see new sights.

Edit: Clarified Darkship entry - thanks to forum feedback!

Edited January 25, 2014 by Top8

[Fengist]

Someone has been playing ENTIERLY too much EVE Online.

[Top8]

Not an EVE player at all

Though a good game from what I hear. I wouldn't be surprised if they draw on some simillar sources for space industrial process as we do - given we went to NSS, NASA, ESA papers and publications for most of our science. Of course their ships won't look like ours since there would be a not-so-slight technology difference even discounting their use of FTL / Jump tech (our setting is hard sci-fi, reality projected to 2070 in our own solar system).

Edit: The kerb smiley is sorta creepy looking

Edited January 24, 2014 by Top8

[Fengist]

If you want ideas, that's probably a better place for something like this.

[Top8]

EVE, from what I understand, is not a game where you design you own ships.

Out of curiosity, what elements of what you see is EVE like?

I am no EVE player but its not like I live under a rock - so I've seen it. It struck me as a very space opera setting with technology thousands of years in advance of our own. Not something we'd be getting to in 2070. Still, I have been trying to make do with what is technically feasable in known engineering ... I am very curious to know your perspective on parallels

Edited January 24, 2014 by Top8

[Fengist]

True, you don't design your own ships. You rearrange modules based on standard frame designs (of which there are dozens ranging from small frigates to cruisers to carriers to 'titans'. What I see that's REAL similar, it's all about corporations in space. Some of which, mega corporations with thousands of real players in them. Mining asteroids, mining moons, setting up your own 'player owned stations' for research, building bigger stations, taking over sections of space and making the rules in those areas, invading other's space, etc. It's a giant sandbox.

I'm sure you'll get some ideas here, but you basically described EVE Online, right down to the stealth ships.

[The Destroyer]

So, from what I gather you would create "mega-corps" and players build ships?

Sounds interesting, the ships.

[Top8]

In the challenge you create ships / stations and my team will use them for concept art in all the educatinal games / materials we are creating. Check out the linked document on google-drive for the full submission criteria.

You can also define your own megacorp and some personalities in its upper echelons - I do most of the creative writing for the project so I will make sure your company and ships get worked into the story. I'll work with the winners on that, as I am the fellow creating the XM2070 setting itself.

We are still students and none of us are really great aritists - so this gets us some great art and we can focus on things like setting up our NPO, working with academic advisors and coding. It is a pretty exciting project which I will write more about in the weeks to come.

[Fengist]

Well, sorta. Anyone can create a corp and become CEO. From there, you decide what your corp is going to do. Are you going to mine resources, build ships, build modules, be mercenaries, run missions for NPC's, be a trader, pirate, good guys, a diplomat, you can basically be whatever you want, right down to a ponzi scheme artist (and there are plenty of those). There are no real 'rules'. It's not a 'game.' Like KSP, it's more like a toy. You have to play with it to be entertained, it won't entertain you. To give you an idea, I've been playing it for going on 7 years now I most of the time, I don't feel I know HALF of what there is out there.

It has a 14 day free trial. www.eveonline.com

Edited January 24, 2014 by Fengist

[Top8]

Interesting Fengist - in those respects it is very simillar. Our game will be more indie space sim and accompanying class material, distributed to schools as far and wide as possible at no cost. Our sim centers around running a space-faring company in 2070 and is designed to present puzzles, cases, events, missions, etc. that parallel business and technology challenges in the real world.

There will still be battles in some circumstances but not really like the ones I've seen in EVE ... ours will be incredibly long range, managing delta-V, move / countermove style combat (more like submarine warfare irl than a typical sci-fi setting).

You should apply some of that hard won EVE space knowhow and whip up a megacorp for this challenge. No IP infringement of course - orginial work is what we need

[Fengist]

I already have a corp in EVE and unfortunately, running one here would all be in my head. KSP is a sandbox that's more of a design, build, fly... and crash, but once you've succeeded, there's really nothing left to do (unless you have a pretty vivid imagination). Ok, so you landed your plane on Duna and flew around... now what? Plus, there's no real incentive for me to even imagine a corp. There's no real economy in KSP (yet).

And EVE isn't all about combat. It's got everything real life has, right down to subterfuge. There have been spies who have infiltrated enemy mega-corporations and sat for real-life YEARS gaining their trust and waiting for the right moment to spring their trap. One of the biggest alliances (bunches of corps banded together with THOUSANDS of players) collapsed when a single spy destroyed them economically. Not that there's any real-life parallel in that

[Top8]

I think you misunderstand - there would be no running of a corp here. Just creating desgins and a bit of creative writing - expecially as there is no RP allowed on these forums. For the corps that win the challenge of course there is plenty of fun, as I will include lots of tribute material in our project.

Still, if you have some designs in a can somewhere you'd be willing to throw into the regular Visions 2070 itwould be much appreciated. We can use all the concept art we can get and the cause is a noble one.

[Fengist]

Well, a design idea I can help you with.

I affectionately call this one Dreadlocks, for obvious reasons. It's sole purpose in life is to land on the Mun, mine 40,000 Kethane and then lift it into Munar orbit. The docking port on the rear and a Kethane converter (buried in the hair) allows me to refuel any ship orbiting the Mun as well as itself. It's a bit 60'ish as an art concept but I'm old anyway so it fits.

This one is actually 3 ships. In front is an aircraft I'm delivering to Duna. In this shot, it's at the Mun awaiting fuel. In the middle, the spider looking ship, is something a number of us have had to create, a tug. This one being and un-manned long range one rather than an orbital tug. Basically, it delivers within the solar system any ship that can't propel itself in space. It has rear and front docking ports. Docked to the rear is an unmanned tanker. Basically, it provides a good bit of additional fuel and a bit more propulsion to whatever it's docked to.

Here's another idea, a base composed of... I call them tractors. Essentially, they're tracked vehicles, each with a unique role, that can reconfigure themselves and dock in various ways.

While each can operate independently, they can also chain together to form a train.

Here's two of them performing a salvage operation on one that I didn't exactly land the way I intended.

And here's how you land one.

Here's my OLD orbital filling station (the orange one). Basically, I shuttle fuel to in with tankers and, should I have a project that barely makes it into orbit (fuel wise), The larger ship docked to it can act as it's own independent filling station, chase down my errant project, dock with it and fill it with fuel. It also has a Kethane tank and converter should I decide to move it to the Mun as a filling station. Oh, and though you can barely see it's wing underneath the ship, that's an electric drone I use to survey atmospheric planets for potential landing sites.

A couple of atmospheric VTOL's. Mostly, they're good at moving Kerbals relatively short distances (lots of range but too slow for a long trip). Yea, they kinda look Star-War-ish but the idea came from the Lockeed XVF-1

Hope this gives you a few ideas on, not how to run a corp, but more how to survive in KSP.

Oh, and if you're looking for concept art and such, you may want to talk to Chris Foss and see if he does any pro-bono work for NPO's. He's been doing spacecraft art for some time.

If I find/think of any more, I'll just update this post.

Edited January 24, 2014 by Fengist

[MagiMaster]

By the way, there's no stealth in space.

[Redrobin]

Wasn't sure what you were looking for, so I made a small bulk-goods transport ship.

[Top8]

By the way, there's no stealth in space.

We handle "stealth" more or less like concealment. Park a ship behind something large enough and you can't sense it from a certain set of perspectives - hard to observe something on the otherside of a moon for example. Couple that with a cryogenic shroud and you could make something very hard to detect from certain directions - so you are correct that its not stealth in terms of radar invisibility "stealth" we are used to let alone some sort of "clainking device" from sci-fi but there are still useful directional effects to be had. Not that it comes cheap - darkships as we termed them would be uncommon to say the least.

We haven't looked too deeply at how conspicious a cryogenic is shroud - it is a cool vs cold dot essentially - ideally matched to the temperature of the CMB and not generally emitting anything except that thermal in the case of very high end darkships. We just assumed that such a dot would be hard to pick out.

P.S. We also thought of a few other tactics Darkships (the cryogenic shroud ships) are good for. They can benfit from very small, inexpensive decoys (other ships may not be able to effectively employ decoys at all - or those decoys nesescarily become quite elaborate asper the standard arguments). Much of our detection system also revolves around the idea that some ships / probes don't have the sensors to do much. Not every ship has its own version of the greenbank telescope - so its a bit cat and mouse, though keeping signature low (a low detectability) is going to be quite tricky. Also note that rocket propulsion is not to be assumed here, beam sails and mag sails change the "stealth" equation.

Edited January 25, 2014 by Top8

[Top8]

Wasn't sure what you were looking for, so I made a small bulk-goods transport ship.

http://i.imgur.com/nOZJblW.png

Nice little ship - so put it under a class, do a little writeup (the format section is in the linked document) and that is a great piece of work

[MagiMaster]

We haven't looked too deeply at how conspicious a cryogenic is shroud - it is a dot essentially - matched to the temperature of the CMB and not generally emitting anything except thermal. We just assumed that such a dot would be hard to pick out.

Hiding behind a moon is legitimate, but even liquid hydrogen is hot compared to the CMB. And then you have to consider that you're dumping rocket fuel all over your hull and you will have to keep doing so for as long as you want to maintain that temperature. Anyway, rather than rehashing all this, that page I linked goes over every stealth idea in sci-fi in pretty good detail (including decoys, which don't work out either). I'm not saying you can't have stealth at all, but, well, you can't if you want to be realistic.

[Top8]

Don't worry - we agree with you. We've even talked with the fellow who manages the page - though on other subjects

"Stealth" is shaky at best and definetly expensive. The only reason we put it in is that people often come at these arguments from the perspective of having very good sensors (huge telesopes, etc.) which is definetly not the case in most real space scenarios. Though it will be a little while before we have our software out even to Alpha you will see its a matter of signature vs. sensors for us (determining what quality of information your sensors get, possibly down to simple temperature of a darkship not under rocket thust - with sails furled - for example). So a great stealth system will be able to fool ships with mediocre detection gear. A "you get what you pay for" approach on the sensor end of things.

Edit: Of course the ship with the mediocre sensor system could be communicating with the large number of good sensor grids that are likely in its area but unless it has tight-beam comms the ship doing so will stick out like a sore thumb. Mostly, its not about being invisible, its about strategy and deception.

Edited January 25, 2014 by Top8