From: jsbell@acs.ucalgary.ca (Joshua Bell)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
Subject: Re: Cloaking device and the Fed.
Date: 11 Sep 92 19:58:03 GMT
Organization: The University of Calgary, Alberta

In article <j=7yzn+@rpi.edu> petitc@rpi.edu writes:
>In article <1089@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov>, jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov (Jim Jagielski) writes:
>|> To radar yes.
>|> To optics no.
>
>  Why would it render it invisible to radar and NOT to optics?  They're both
>E-M radiation, just at different freqencies.  And we KNOW the shields keep out
>X-Rays, so unles there is a deliberate "window" in the visible range (Not
>Bloody Likely), the ship _has_ to be invisible (or at least a black sphere, or
>whatever shape the shields are in).

The shields 'glow' when hit with anything with visible-light
components (eg phasers, tractor beams, antimatter explosions,
etc). The TNG Tech manual explains this away as the photons etc
emitting Cerenkov (sp?) radiation as they hit the shield and
deflect - somehow the device pops them up to faster than c in a
vacuum, (with a pseudo-Warp field?), so they go spitting off into
nothingness with a nice flash.

In a TOS episode - Assignment: Earth - the 1701 is in orbit about
Earth in the 20th century (1968 I think...) and Kirk's log entry
states that the shields have rendered the ship invisible to
ground observers. Given the technology of the day, and the size
of the thing, I suspect it would have to be radar _and_
visible-light transparent. Could you see the Enterprise from the
ground with the naked eye?

Anyway, the fact that _we_ can see it in that episode isn't
really worth debating. Maybe it was filmed with neutrinos. :)

But... going back to my first point - if the big-E's shields were
to deflect everything, you'd get a nice, big blue-white egg-shape
flying about. I imagine they do have 'windows' for visible light
in the shields, just so the people inside don't go all nuts.

Here's something else about cloaking/shield technology - various
non-canonical TOS/TFS references hint that the shield is a
transporter-based technology where some crystaline metal is
'phased' into a shield around the ship (Mr. Scott's Guide to the
Enterprise has details). This would sync, at least, with TFS
shots where we see the shield 'going up', and it hugs the shape
of the ship. In TNG, the shield technology is completely
different - it doesn't hug the ship, and seems more closely tied
to Warp technology.

Cloaking may require the transporter-based shields. It is a
'wrapped' effect, not a 'bubble'. So the Feds may well have
cloaking devices, but they aren't usable in the Galaxy class
starship and any other vessel that uses the new Warp-based
shields.

Of course, thats just the Feds. The Romulans may very well have
figured out a way to generate a second generation cloaking device
that is warp-field based, and the Feds just don't have it yet.

Joshua
| Tremble only if you build false accounts and stand pridefully upon them    |
|                                       - Lord Leto II, God Emperor of Dune  |
|                                                                            |
| jsbell@acs.ucalgary.ca  Academic Computing Services, University of Calgary |
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech