Slow Stealth

I occurred to me that there is one way a stealthy attack in space might work (at least once). It would depend on a lot of misdirection, really good security, and an inattentive, though not really incompetent victim.

The key is a mass driver, driven by a fission reactor, and the fact that most of the viewpoints humans can reach easily are in or near the plane of the ecliptic.

For example, suppose the First Marshen Republick launches an expedition to visit various uninhabited asteroids, a-to-b-to-c-to-d. The carefully selected crew (who all happen to have high security clearances and tight lips) visit the asteroids and publish their papers and all is right with the worlds. Ten years later, an unmapped giant asteroid wipes out the Terran Pacific Rim with giant tsunamis and earthquakes, and severely inconveniences the rest of the earth with several nuclear winters.

It just so happens, that this asteroid was one that the Republick's survey visited. And that the Republick has a long-standing bone to pick with Terra.

Mass drivers probably have the lowest radiated signature of any propulsion system. If you keep a very well designed radiator panel aligned parallel to the ecliptic (hard, when it's a few acres, but not impossible), very few sensors will ever see it.

Now the whole deal can be queered if someone happens to look at the asteroid during the initial movement. Whether they see the heat signature, or the odd whatever signature that the mass drivers will cause, the sight of an asteroid actively changing course surely gives the game away. You have to do it when the asteroid is obscured by the sun from your target, and from anyone else who might rat. You can probably also only do this once.

Still, it is a stealthy attack in space. There should be some kind of extra credit for that, other than the massive Terran space fleet that 20 years later non-stealthily nukes the Republick into near-extinction.

Regards,
Jack Tingle
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Slow Stealth
    ... good security, and an inattentive, though not really incompetent victim. ... suppose the First Marshen Republick launches an expedition ... that this asteroid was one that the Republick's ... Mass drivers probably have the lowest radiated signature of any ...
    (rec.arts.sf.science)
  • Re: Slow Stealth
    ... good security, and an inattentive, though not really incompetent victim. ... suppose the First Marshen Republick launches an expedition ... that this asteroid was one that the Republick's ... Mass drivers probably have the lowest radiated signature of any ...
    (rec.arts.sf.science)