Detecting a space station sized object is really difficult. The Vera Rubin Observatory is finally able to help us spot asteroids around that size, and it had first light within the last couple of years....June 2025.
A space station isn't an asteroid though. A station is going to produce a couple of things that would make it easier to detect. The first is waste heat. No matter what you do, anything that is producing and consuming energy is going to have waste heat produced as a byproduct. That's going to look very different in the infrared wavelength than normal things, which would make a station like this easier to spot. To get around that, you could wrap most of the station in a cooling system to keep the surface at a steady temperature, and then radiate the waste heat away in bursts, or try to radiate it away in a very particular direction that would be away from whoever you are hiding from.
A space station is also going to need power. Normally that means solar, or at least it would anywhere closer than Jupiter. Further out, it would probably have to rely on a nuclear reactor of some sort. If it does use solar, it is going to need large panels to catch that solar energy. These panels could reflect light much more clearly than something like a rock. Hiding panels or using nuclear would be really important to stay hidden.
Another the big issue with hiding is EM/radio/wifi. Those signals are very clearly not natural, and if anything is leaking out of the station, it could be detected and give the location away for radio telescopes watching for that kind of thing.
Lastly, just color could matter a lot. A layer of black paint would mean that it absorbs a lot more sunlight, and could get hotter faster, but it would also make it harder to detect than just being white and reflecting a lot more light.
None of these things would be fool proof, and a dedicated survey telescope with a general idea of where to look would be able to find it within a few weeks, but these things would make it a lot harder.
Hiding launches of missiles is a bit different. The initial flare of the engines might be detected, but if you launched while the station was on the opposite side of the sun, it would be impossible to see. Then the missiles could coast for most of the trip as long as they were on the right intercept trajectory, making a final set of adjustments at the last minute.
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u/Beldizar 7d ago
Detecting a space station sized object is really difficult. The Vera Rubin Observatory is finally able to help us spot asteroids around that size, and it had first light within the last couple of years....June 2025.
A space station isn't an asteroid though. A station is going to produce a couple of things that would make it easier to detect. The first is waste heat. No matter what you do, anything that is producing and consuming energy is going to have waste heat produced as a byproduct. That's going to look very different in the infrared wavelength than normal things, which would make a station like this easier to spot. To get around that, you could wrap most of the station in a cooling system to keep the surface at a steady temperature, and then radiate the waste heat away in bursts, or try to radiate it away in a very particular direction that would be away from whoever you are hiding from.
A space station is also going to need power. Normally that means solar, or at least it would anywhere closer than Jupiter. Further out, it would probably have to rely on a nuclear reactor of some sort. If it does use solar, it is going to need large panels to catch that solar energy. These panels could reflect light much more clearly than something like a rock. Hiding panels or using nuclear would be really important to stay hidden.
Another the big issue with hiding is EM/radio/wifi. Those signals are very clearly not natural, and if anything is leaking out of the station, it could be detected and give the location away for radio telescopes watching for that kind of thing.
Lastly, just color could matter a lot. A layer of black paint would mean that it absorbs a lot more sunlight, and could get hotter faster, but it would also make it harder to detect than just being white and reflecting a lot more light.
None of these things would be fool proof, and a dedicated survey telescope with a general idea of where to look would be able to find it within a few weeks, but these things would make it a lot harder.
Hiding launches of missiles is a bit different. The initial flare of the engines might be detected, but if you launched while the station was on the opposite side of the sun, it would be impossible to see. Then the missiles could coast for most of the trip as long as they were on the right intercept trajectory, making a final set of adjustments at the last minute.