OT: the reasoning behind scanners
 

Yes this is another of my "lets reason sci-fi" topics but i just cant help my curiosity.
What do the different scanners in SE realy mean? no no, i mean, how do they scan? its a little too late here, ill give my own Versions tomorrow. untill then what are your thoughts?

Re: OT: the reasoning behind scanners
 

What do you mean different types of scanners? Do you mean sensors, as in the components that detect cloaked ships? Or scanners, the component that can tell what components a ship has on it? AFAIK there is only one kind of scanner. There are different sensors though.

Geoschmo

Re: OT: the reasoning behind scanners
 

Active scanners are basically like radar...
You send out a pulse of something fast, like photons for example, and watch for the return pulse.

Passive scanners are just really sensitive detectors. The heat spike of engine thrust, the light from windows, the particle emissions of reactors, whatever.

Gravitational detectors could be just a very specialized Version of passive scanners. The tiny disruptions to dust and other objects on the system by a ship's mass would be correlated into a detection.

The rest are more sci-fi...
Psychic could be just telepaths looking for other minds out in space. The cloaking device could provide static-type interference, or bend the psychic energy around the ship like it would for light, etc.

Temporal Make up whatever you want for these... Tachyons, Chronoton detectors, looking at a possible future where the cloaking is accidentally turned off, whatever.