Following on from the 'attacking out of the sun' thread. I have gotta stop reading debates!
Much discusion has been made on 'waste heat', thermodynamic laws, etc in relation to IR detection in space. My schooling never went this high and there is an obvious assumption made that 'waste heat' must be radiated.
What is the principle behind this assumption? Layman logic tells me that you should be able to recycle the energy at greater and greater efficiencies as tech improves. The only energy I can see as having to be 'lost' is from drives swapping stored energy for momentum, comms & active sensors. Inefficiences will obviously be the main 'other' cause of waste heat and I would expect that inefficiences would reduce as tech increases.
& before anyone asks, no I'm not looking for 100% efficient TL15 'stealth ships'!
Cheers!
Much discusion has been made on 'waste heat', thermodynamic laws, etc in relation to IR detection in space. My schooling never went this high and there is an obvious assumption made that 'waste heat' must be radiated.
What is the principle behind this assumption? Layman logic tells me that you should be able to recycle the energy at greater and greater efficiencies as tech improves. The only energy I can see as having to be 'lost' is from drives swapping stored energy for momentum, comms & active sensors. Inefficiences will obviously be the main 'other' cause of waste heat and I would expect that inefficiences would reduce as tech increases.
& before anyone asks, no I'm not looking for 100% efficient TL15 'stealth ships'!
Cheers!