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In Reply to: Good idea for a SF movie ?? posted by Merak on December 09, 2003 at 20:05:31:
""An alien spacecraft approaches Earth from the opposite side of the Sun (our perspective) and is therefore not detected until it's about to enter orbit...""How can that happen? Last time I looked at it, Earth was spinning around Sun, taking 365 days, and a few hours to travel a whole orbit (thatīs what one year is), so thereīs no way anything could come "from the opposite side of the Sun"...
That reminds me of that old joke about sending a satellite to the Sun and, to avoid it being burnt, be sending it during the night hours...
Regards
BF
Follow Ups:
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Yes, it wouldnīt be so difficult to play "Hide and Seek", but... why doing so?Unless they knew about the existence of us belicose humans..., but then why didnīt they prepare that ship to defend itself from the idiot in charge...?
That script needs a sharp twist to make it fit.
Regards
BF
A low Earth orbit (as originally described) need not be out in 'Space'. If the craft is disabled after it began to slow down on its own, then the orbit can be only a few 10's of miles high. This would place it low enough for atmospheric friction to keep it from unlimited acceleration but not enough to burn it up, at least until a few orbits have been traveled. Also, at that low altitude the heat energy would be severely felt at the surface. The space shuttle can withstand the heat generated upon re-entry, so it would not be a far stretch to imagine a better material able to withstand several orbits at the altitude described.
First of all, there is no need for the spacecraft to be anything but trying to reach the Earth. Second, it need not be manned (or aliened, if you prefer) -- it could just be a probe of sorts that is sent from a civilization that believes we are worth investigating (after years of receiving radio/TV electromagnetic signals. Third, at only 0.04c (4% the relative speed of light) it could travel from outside the orbit of Saturn (the detectable region for many comets -- much bigger and slower than our friend) to just behind the Sun (from Earth) in only 3 days. From the Sun to Earth in only hours. If it's unmanned (oops, I mean unaliened) it can withstand high G forces allowing it to get into Earth orbit (or just about) very quickly -- which is where it is fired upon. With only hours of potential warning, and moments to make a shoot or no shoot decision, I can easily see a panic shot being launced -- if not several. Wasn't there an incident, not many years ago, where an Alaska passenger airliner got shot down by a Soviet missile? In plain English -- S*** happens.
The spacecraft does not have to travel anywhere near light speed in order to make the trip from our detectable limits (not knowing that it's out there headed towards us) to being within Earth orbit distance (opposite the Sun) within a few days. The earth travels an angular displacement of only a few degrees within that time; and since to detect it we would have to be looking directly through the sun to see it for most of that time -- it can get in. But thank you for your input, at least you entertained the thought, and that's what counts!
Look at the distances involved (Jupiter is some 800 billion kilometers from Earth...) and then consider that nothing is staying quiet in the Solar System, but spinning around Sun at veeery high speeds..., and the farther it comes from, the smaller the angular displacement needed to detect it, even if there were no satellites around, or something like good old Hubble...And then, that ship would need to lower its speed when coming in, or would never be able to enter any decent orbit: that all requires time, doesnīt it?
Regards
BF
I have addressed your concerns in two earlier replies -- but due to the way replies are posted, the first one lies below the second.
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