If we had the Enterprise NCC 1701, no bloody A, B, C, or D in orbit, you would be able to see it with the naked eye. The thing is 288 m long. Even in geosynchronous orbit you’d still be barely able to see it.
If you’re referring to pretty much any of the classes of starships once TNG starts, those ships would be clearly visible in a standard low to high orbit.
That’s understandable for civilizations up to industrial age, but once they start getting prewarp, hiding in orbit would get more and more difficult.all the satellites in orbit, telescopes and scanners would likely pick up something
They use holograms for ground outposts, and you can’t really see a ship in orbit easily.
The use case with the prime directive is rather limited.
If we had the Enterprise NCC 1701, no bloody A, B, C, or D in orbit, you would be able to see it with the naked eye. The thing is 288 m long. Even in geosynchronous orbit you’d still be barely able to see it.
If you’re referring to pretty much any of the classes of starships once TNG starts, those ships would be clearly visible in a standard low to high orbit.
That’s understandable for civilizations up to industrial age, but once they start getting prewarp, hiding in orbit would get more and more difficult.all the satellites in orbit, telescopes and scanners would likely pick up something
This is why I added the qualifier easily to that sentence.
Pre warp civilizations aren’t always going to be able to do those things.