Re: Tracking

: "Logan Kearsley" <chrono.surfer@xxxxxxxxxxx>
: It's made more problematic by the fact that any detectable radiation
: travelling through normal space given off by the FTL drive can't possibly be
: approaching you faster than the FTL drive is moving away, leading to
: annoying lag in your image of the trail (unless we find someway to detect
: tachyons, anyway).

Don't see why. Let's say the drive was instantaneous, but there's
a burst of light emitted all along the path. Then you'd immediately see
a spot of light moving away, along the path the ship took. There'd
be no delay, since the ship started close to where you are. And
interestingly, if such a ship moved *towards* you, you'd also see
a spot of light moving away. In the direction it came from. And
if it went past you, you'd have a spot of light moving off in both
directions, and you'd have an interesting time figuring out
which way the ship went.

Cherenkov radiation would be a nice buzzword for it, but iirc that's
emmitted directionally, towards the direction of travel (more or less,
sort of; actually at an angle, I think). So, if you too can go
FTL, you can move ahead of where you think the ship might have gone,
and see its "wake" of cherenkov radiation. You don't need to get ahead
of where the ship actually is, just ahead of its path by far enough so
that the cherenkov radiation hasn't gotten there yet.

And, of course, you can suppose that a similar "shockwave" effect
exists for gravity, and detect that.

All of these, of course, presume some moderately unlikely things about
the way the ship works. But even in things like the alcubierre drive,
or any sort of "warp" drive, one could suppose there are gravitational
disturbances emitted, more or less in any direction you like.
Just detect those, and Bob's your uncle.


Wayne Throop throopw@xxxxxxxxx http://sheol.org/throopw
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Tracking
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    (rec.arts.sf.science)
  • Re: The Cold Equations
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  • Re: Postulates of Relativity and The Cosmic Background - Question
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