Writing a "realistic" cloaking device

[brianeyci]

As for the short fanfic, I don't see why they'd have to be quiet... unlike photons, phonons do not readily jump the ship-to-vacuum interface. That is, THERE IS NO SOUND IN SPACE.

Yes well. Tell that to the phasers, or the photon torpedoes, or the explosions of ships in space =D. I know the normal justification is that sound in sci-fi is just for ambience, like background music, but in ST we have seven seasons of mostly sound in space, and in DS9 tons of sound in space. We hear objective sound. Also in Voyager, as dozens of Borg cubes passed it, Voyager shook as if it was being hit by the wake of the passing massive Borg vessels.

Anyway, brainbug or no brainbug, you could always nail down the quiet to an apprehensive and well-trained crew who is using the cloaking device for the first time. Also, it would allude to people's idea of submarines running silent, and in a pop culture sci-fi series, I think that's forgivable. Good writing along with a few brainbugs is okay IMO as long as the brainbugs aren't too distracting, in the case of sound precendent has been set for several seasons (and several series) before DS9 that there is sound in space. Walking robots are a slight brainbug, but they never bothered me nor would the Defiant running entirely silent, as long as it was written well.

What were the helmets for? Providing a virtual illumination for the ship interior since it was blacked out? Or was everything outside the helmets turned invisible, so they couldn't see the ship from inside without them?

Well like DW said, taking the idea of shutting down lifesupport to the extreme. I always found it laughable when the crew said "lifesupport down to 20%" or "lifesupport has failed" and they're still alive. IMO, putting the crew in those good looking First Contact space suits while they go under cloak would be dramatic and justify them shutting lifesupport down entirely.

Brian

[Howedar]

Full pressure suits are obviously unnecessary. Venting your atmosphere to space would make you more visible, not less. Furthermore, you don't want to radiate all of your heat, since that will make you more visible. One would want a very well-insulated habitable area, I would think. Heaters would get turned off, but the outside difference between an insulated warm inside and a cold inside should be nill. All that should be necessary would be portable breathing air and possibly heavy clothing (if one has decided to keep the inside cold).

[Darth Wong]

Actually, I believe the idea of the spacesuit is to deal with the cold and the carbon dioxide poisoning rather than assuming the whole ship vents its atmosphere to space. But the ship would have to be under cloak for an incredibly long time for CO2 to become a problem, given the sheer volume of air in the ship. And I doubt that air processing would use up enough power to warrant shutting it off for cloak anyway.

I do like the idea of everybody moving to a battle bridge in an insulated core area of the ship for cloaked operations.

[Howedar]

Pressure suits are very bulky and make movement difficult, one could have a closed suit that was not necessarily pressurized. As for CO2 poisoning, unless my understanding is way wrong that's a breathing-only problem. You don't need a pressure suit to breathe out of a mask.