Engineer Stealth Technology

They didn't pick up the Derelict when they started the colony because (according to Cameron) it had been damaged by a lava flow after the Nostromo left (Dallas originally turning it off or Marlow in Alien Isolation turning it off notwithstanding).

"Then we have Alien.... how did the Nostromo not be able to detect anything until they had landed, we have to ask if it was not for picking up the Beacon Signal would their sensors had found the Derelict?"

Not sure what this means?  They picked up the transmission long before they landed and traced it to the origin point on the surface.

What i was thinking was how in general as a theory that could explain why the Franchise Ships could not detect any remains of the Engineers Tech.

Yes Lava flow could interfere with some stuff... but the Derelict was not completely covered when Hadleys Hope infestation had occurred.

So my point with Alien is... that it was the signal that lead them to the location it would be like in Aliens their sensors could not detect maybe Human Life... and maybe it was some kind of tracker the Colonists had implanted that led to the location of them under the Cooling System.

So what i was trying to propose is what if the Engineers had something that acted as a Stealth for their Technology?

It could be a matter of the Bio-Mechanical Construction Material is something that can not be detected.   It could be some Technology that interferes with communications (but did not effect the Space Jockey Warning)  It could be maybe just natural interference's from minerals/lava or caused by the atmospheric storms and silica on LV-223 

Or it could just be that Mankinds Technology does not have the ability to detect remains of any kind of Technology.... as its not just Alien or Aliens.... but in Prometheus and seems Alien Covenant too.

There is no Proof of any Stealth and so this is just a speculation behind what if there is and could this be used as ways to explain why the Company Missions fail to detect any remains of Engineer Ships and Society apart from external beacon signals left by the Engineers...  i.e Space Jockey SOS/Warning.

But then we cant just assume Mankind would possess the Technology that Star Trek has ;)

And so i am not just talking about the events of the Derelict, but if we look at Prometheus it seemed only by chance that Holloway noticed the Valley that was carved out like it was not a natural occurrence "God does not build in straight lines"

Clearly when they approach we have what appears to be 5 similar Cave/Temple Mounds and inside we have no doubt Engineer Technology and Architecture and as David said there was many more Ships.....

Yet Prometheus did not detect none of these... they only detected the Juggernaught once David had opened the Door to it as the Pups where stuck on the other side and then once David had opened the entrance to the Hanger those Pups could start to map the Ship.

Then we have Alien Covenant.... the crew believe they are finding uncharted Paradise..... they then go on to find the SOLE OCCUPANT as David 8 from Prometheus Mission.

Would the Engineers Homeworld be Baron with no previous Engineer Architecture or Technology or could they have been abandoned for many many thousands of years with nothing left.... such as maybe if at the time of the Great Pyramids Mankind was wiped out... it would be logical that in thousands of years from now... those Pyramids etc would be eroded away even more.

But we have to assume Engineer Technology beneath ground or inside can sustain itself.. like the inside of the Temple Mounds in Prometheus.

And then we have where did David Park his Juggernaught and how this was not detected.... we dont know 100% if it was though as i am only going by the Synopsis to me shows the crew of the Covenant (for the most part) did not expect to find anyone or anything on Paradise.

So finding David was a surprise.... but we dont know if the Ship ended up there by pure Coincidence... like how Prometheus came down on the exact Valley that had those Engineer Complexes or how on the whole surface of the Moon of LV-426 Hadleys Hope was set up not far from the Derelict.

But these things are needed to drive the plot....

Maybe in Covenant there is more than coincidence....

so its just a Topic to for Fun Speculate about if the Engineers Technology is something that conceals them.... I think it was one of Spaights Drafts that hinted at such a thing.

It sounds as if you're suggesting that ships in the Alien universe have scanners akin to those in Star Trek or Star Wars that can pick up life and technology readings from orbit? I'm not sure they do have that sort of thing.  Besides the PUPs picking up the intermittent lifeform reading of the sleeping Engineer when it got within range.

Maybe not as advanced as Star Trek etc...

Its just a debate to maybe why nothing can  be detected...  but maybe the Ships in the Franchise are not much more advanced than our most advanced Planes and Sea Ships....  

But i would still wander why they dont detect remnants of Engineers Architecture in Prometheus and potentially in Alien Covenant.

So i was just making a theory to maybe the Giger Engineer Material is something that has stealth properties in its construction so it can not be detected...

Then also i think Spaights draft said something about the Engineers having something that interfered with Humans Technology to detect their outposts etc.

The Pubs detected intermittent life signs  maybe because they can pick up on living things... or minor movement...

But detecting technology in a shut down state was something they Prometheus and its Tech could maybe not do?

I think you'd only pick up the 'temples' on LV-223 if you were actually looking for them from orbital images.  And if you didn't know where to look orbital imaging may not be of a high enough resolution to pick up the roads between the temples.

I don't really see anything in the Alien films that would suggest they could scan for things like technology from orbit, and life scanning seems to have a limited range.  The other pups scanning the temple didn't pick up the hammerpedes for example. They'd already scanned that section, and they didn't seem to return to have another look, once the hammerpedes had grown.

I don't know how we could make any calls about Covenant yet.

Very valid points...

Like i said there is not proof to give account to how good the technology was to scan for things and so you are correct and i guess as far as finding evidence of a civilization it depends how much they had developed, we have developed well and any Alien Race... would from a distance detect life on Earth via things like radio transmissions  the effect of electro-magnetics from our technology as it would leave a finger print and even being able to see the city lights from space of our larger urban areas.

If a ship came to earth however say 4000 years ago, there would be less to detect and from space you would not see things stand out such as the city lights of large cities like New York.

And so you are correct we dont know a lot about Alien Covenant we do not know what the population on Paradise was as far as Engineers etc... Looking at reasons why the Covenant did not detect anything based off the Synopsis that the lone occupant was David.... this does not however mean they had no idea the place was a empty World......  we dont know that.

But it does hint at and when we look at Prometheus, that Paradise was not as well populated as modern Earth or even in the past.... and it would appear they have Ancient style buildings where a lot of the Technology is buried inside or underground. So buildings would look like they was thousands of years old on the outside but are technologically advanced in a way inside.

If we assume Engineers Architecture was Ancient as in from a external point of view like Ancient Roman/Greeks and Egypt.... and if it was not heavily populated.

So if we imagine that 500 years ago the Americas was cut off from the Rest of the World... no one could travel to the Americas and no influences and a disaster happened that wiped out the Mayans etc.....  so the whole North and South American continent was how it was 500 years ago as far as Mayan Buildings etc.... and 500 years ago Civilization stopped..

Flash forwards 5000 years and would there really be much left to visually discover from above?  Worn down ruined Temples, some covered by the Jungles....

Then yes something like this would be hard to detect unless you went on foot to explore.... and assuming ships dont have advanced scanning methods....

Then yes this could back up maybe why the Covenant did not detect nothing... as it seems that way...   We also have to consider if there is not much to find... and you also dont expect to find nothing then there is little chance to find stuff.

If however you knew this place once had Ancient Civilizations then you would look around more and stand more chance of finding it..

A Needle in a Hay Stack is hard to find.... but its much harder if you are looking at a Hay Stack and dont even know there is supposed to be Needle lost there...

EXT. MAGELLAN (IN ATMOSPHERE)

The descending ship strikes an invisible FORCE FIELD.
A thunderclap! Lightning claws at the Magellan’s hull. For a
moment, the barrier is made visible: a spherical membrane of
light spanning the sky, enveloping the entire moon

==============

One of Spaights drafts that could show some kind of Force Field that hindered the Ships scanners etc... Upon getting past this force field and descending down is when they detect some odd things that stand out and its only until they move to one of these areas they notice craters and canals connected like Crop Circles and this is only when they realize this is not natural and so they fly over this area until one peak seems to stand out and they detect more metals that could hint at technology but they cant detect any heat, or anything that suggests its such and so its only when they land to take a closer look that they detect these places are actually Engineer Outposts.

And so yes maybe there technology is more visual and the Engineers is something that dont stand out and so it would be like looking for ruins of under ground cave systems and ancient temples on Earth... rather than a modern city.

But maybe weather and potential Force Field did help to cloud any potential further out scans of the Moon.

But off course there is not 100% proof to suggest these apply to the movies at all....

Still interesting to ponder if the construction materials used by the Engineers for the interior of their complexes and ships are as such that they do not show up so easy on any scanning Technology that Mankind possesses.

If we go back to Alien Covenant i think its going to be interesting to wonder in its prime how populated was Paradise, and what remains of this... i.e are all the buildings built into Caves etc, are they just weathered ruins....

so many things to ponder for what potentially Paradise was like, and what its like as of 2100's

Part of what i am saying is any kind of Scanning Technology and Sensors would have trouble determining the Ancient Giza Pyramids compared to natural rock formations that contained the same rock the Pyramids was constructed from.... Provided Pyramids was empty.

So it would be more a visual technology or like sonar that would be able to display the shape of a Pyramid and then you would realize while its made from Natural Materials it is  arranged in a none natural formation.