Quote:
Originally Posted by TLAM Strike
The RCS thrusters on the Space Shuttle (the ones they use for station keeping and docking) can be spotted by another ship with present day passive detection systems at ranges in excess of 100 million kilometers.  |
This is true. The notion of a spacecraft hiding is nonsense. Even just the temperature of the crew compartment (by definition some sort of comfy "room temperature" for humans) makes it visible in IR very far away using IR telescopes. Throw in any sort of drive capable of pushing it at high speed and ships don't hide.