What Do You Know About Cloaking?

[Jeanway 0]

I know shields are energy. But what about ' cloak ', also energy right? What are the differences between shield and cloaking. Just need to know this, I'm a girl so I don't. I know sheild protect a ship from weapons, cloak makes it undetectable. Except for a few residual anti-protons You got anything else for me?

[Sam The Smuggler 1]

From StarTrek.com

 

Doesn't Help Much

 

Technology of Romulan origin, first described in 2266, that can generate an energy screen to render a target object — usually a spacecraft — relatively invisible to sensors.

Due to their immense power drain, cloaking generators have usually prohibited simultaneous use of other major systems such as weaponry, shields or warp drive.

 

Although common to Klingon ships as well since the short-lived alliance with Romulus in the 2260s, Federation vessels have agrred to forego use of cloaks under the Treaty of Algeron, except in the case of the U.S.S. Defiant, which utilizes such a device by special arrangement.

[Jeanway 0]

To the contrary Sam, that helps me alot. It also help me with a time-line. Thanks. So it's a generator onboard then and it is regulated by a treaty, huh? I never knew that. Why would it be regulated? By a treaty? So a ship would have to have a special generator on-board. Is it an anti-matter generator? Is there such a thing? Couldn't it be powered by the warp core? Do you think you could devise such a generator?

[Sam The Smuggler 1]

The Treaty States That The Federation Can Not Develope Cloaks Of Their Own.

 

 

As For What Generates The Power, I Dunno. I Could Check My ST:ENCY. It Has More Info Than ST.com.

 

Scratch That, It's Pretty Much The Same, lol

Edited June 25, 2004 by Sam The Smuggler

[TSonofvulcan 0]

I beleve it is the same power for all ship systems:

Primary: Warp Core

Secondary: Main Power (Like in batteries)

Emergency: Auxilury Power (Like in emergancy backup batteries)

[Jeanway 0]

'STARDATE 3333 CAPTAIN'S LOG'

 

Make mental note to try to hyjack TSonofvulcan for post on USS Elusive as consultant. Also in need of a Temporal Mechanic.

 

ADMIRAL JEANWAY OUT

Edited June 25, 2004 by Jeanway

[TSonofvulcan 0]

sorry, I'm CO of the USS. Royale-C, Head of JAG, Member of the Federation council, Chief Diplomat, Member of Starfleet Command, I have a fleet of ships (Nebula, Sovereign, Freedem, Niagra, Saladan, Constilation, Excelsior, nova, Galacy X, Achilles, and more on the way) that must be attended to. Not to mention I am superintendent of Starfleet academy. You'll have to arrange an appointment to talk. This non-appointment talk pushed back my next appointment 0.000000254 seconds

[Jeanway 0]

Geeze, you don't have a 'self-importance' problem do ya? It's just a consultant position, not a full time post, a couple minutes a week, no big deal.

[TSonofvulcan 0]

*looks down at the PADD and starts pushing buttons as the PADD beeps* No, I always requie a 7 hour rejuvination period (sleep) and I can't fit you in untill next year. *looks up from PADD* I do beleve the Sovereign class enterprise has a cloaked viewscreen, however, it could just be a holographic cover up. Yes, actually, it is probably just a holographic cover up.

[WEAREBORG4102 0]

Officially cloaks supposedly scatter photons.... But I don't know how.

[WEAREBORG4102 0]

The cloaking device was first developed by the Romulan Empire in the 2260s. Invisibility had long been possible - the selective bending of light around a vessel would render it invisible to whatever frequency range was selected. However, the power cost was so enormous that such a device was not considered to be practical.

In 2266 the Enterprise encountered a Romulan vessel which carried the first known practical cloaking device. The ship was able to cloak itself from sight at will, and although it is was still visible to motion sensors these were not accurate enough for more than a general location - certainly not accurate enough for a firing solution. Although the cloak was quite effective, it did have its drawbacks. The power drain was so great that the Romulan vessel was unable to use its own scanners effectively and could not fire any weapons. The vessel also had relatively limited range due to the high fuel consumption.

 

The Romulans apparently traded cloaking technology to the Klingons in exchange for warships. Certainly the Romulans began operating Klingon-designed vessels in the 2268, while the Klingons were known to employ cloaking technology at least as early as 2285. The Klingons made one major innovation in cloaking technology in 2293, when they produced a Bird of Prey capable of firing torpedoes whilst cloaked. The prototype vessel battled the USS Enterprise and USS Excelsior in orbit of Khittomer; despite emitting large amounts of neutron radiation the weapon was highly effective, but the Enterprise crew realized that the Bird of Prey could be tracked by following the plasma exhaust emitted by its engines and modified a photon torpedo to follow this trail. The development was so effective that the Klingon development was rendered next to useless, and was never again an effective combatant.

 

In 2311 the Federation signed the Treaty of Algeron, which reaffirmed the Romulan Neutral Zone and forbade the Federation from developing or deploying any cloaking technology.

 

Perhaps the most impressive example of cloaking technology was observed in 2364, when the supposedly mythical planet of Aldea was discovered by the Enterprise-D. The planet had been hidden for centuries behind a complicated light refracting mechanism which bent light around it in a similar manner to the Romulan cloaking device.

 

The Minosians were also known to employ cloaking technology as part of their Echo Papa 607 weapons system. The Enterprise-D was forced to battle a cloaked drone weapon in orbit of the planet; it overcame the cloaking device by luring the drone into the atmosphere where the turbulence made it visible.

 

Later in the same year the Romulan Warbird was encountered for the first time when the Enterprise-D encountered one at the Neutral Zone. It was initially believed that the Enterprise sensor systems could detect the Warbird through its cloak, but it quickly became apparent that the Romulans had in fact deliberately allowed themselves to be detected in order to determine the Federation's intentions towards them.

 

Subsequent encounters revealed that the improved cloaking device still suffered from limitations. The Romulan vessels remain unable to fire whilst cloaked, whilst advanced in Federation sensor technology have made its invisibility less than assured. Subspace listening posts and gravitic sensors are both a worry for Romulan commanders, and the Federation has deployed large numbers of these along its borders. Perhaps the most effective development was the Tachyon detection grid; created by Enterprise-D personnel in 2368, the system involves a network of vessels which send tachyon beams towards one another across a large area of space. Even a cloaked vessel will disturb one of these beams when crossing it, hence rendering it detectable.

 

In 2369 the Federation gained significant intelligence on the Warbird when a Starfleet officer masqueraded as a Romulan for a short time. She confirmed that the ship must keep a careful watch over its own electromagnetic missions whilst cloaked, and that the radiative emissions of the warp engines must be precisely balanced by means of nullifier cores. Even a small misalignment in one of these cores creates a polarized magnetic disturbance whenever the ship is in motion, a disturbance which can be detected by a Federation vessel.

 

Ironically, perhaps the greatest single advance in cloaking technology was made by the Federation. In 2358 the Starship Pegasus was believed destroyed after a mutiny by the crew. However, in 2370 Starfleet discovered that the Pegasus was still largely intact. Admiral Pressman, Captain of the ship at the time of its loss, attempted to recover some technology from the vessel using the Enterprise-D. It transpired that certain Federation officers had been illegally developing a Phase Cloak, a device which could change the structure of matter in order render it both invisible and able to pass through normal matter. A vessel equipped with such a device could hide within a planet or a star, completely immune from conventional attack. The crew had been so fearful of what they considered to be a dangerous device that they had mutinied rather than continue to operate it.

 

In 2368 the Enterprise assisted a Romulan vessel in distress, and discovered that this vessel had also been attempting to test a phase cloak. The results had been disastrous, causing an accident that would have completely destroyed the ship if not for the assistance of the Starfleet vessel. There has since been little sign of progress with this technology.

 

In 2371 the Romulans agreed to allow Starfleet the use of a single cloaking device on board the USS Defiant in order to facilitate that ships missions against the Dominion, in return for all of Starfleet's information about the organization. Although the original agreement was to only use the cloak in the Gamma Quadrant, Captain Sisko subsequently violated this aspect of the agreement on many occasions.

 

that's from DITL

[Jeanway 0]

Well, WAB looks like my Hot-Train idea solved alot of those problems :blink: Hey, you do know your in Engineering on the Elusive with HeadBorg, don't you?

[WEAREBORG4102 0]

Ok, I'll check that out.