expanding collision detection radius

Hi,

Is there anyway of expanding the raduis of a collision detection?

I have a ship that needs to come close (but not physically touch) other objects. The Collision command is great but to register it, the objects get too close.

Is there a away of making the sphere of influence so ti speak, i.e so my object only needs to be say 10units away for it to register as a collision?

The only thing I can think of is to put an invisible object around my ship which gives this distance and get that to register with the collision command. Not even sure i that idea is possible...

I need to do it across anything upto 50 objects - hence the collision command is ideal for this.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Max