Asri-unix.873
net.space
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:C70:sri-unix!REM@MIT-MC
Tue Mar  2 03:25:21 1982
Quasar starships, contd.
One other obvious effect not mentionned in your (HPM's) message is:
Redshifting = time-expansion, blusshifting = time-contraction.
Thus a rocket blast lasting 1 year but redshifted or blueshifted
by a factor of 10 would seem to last 10 years or 0.1 year upon
receipt. So a redshifted rocket blast would seem to be a longlasting
quasar while a blueshifted rocket blast would seem to be a supernova
somewhat. Maybe some of the mysterious x-ray bursts are blueshifted
rockets? However I agree that it'd be stupid to blast your rocket
in the exact direction of some planet you want to survey for life.
Thus we'd see only far-away blasts that were aimed to miss a planet
destined to survey and just happened to be aimed at this distant
unknown planet called Earth that isn't even cataloged yet in
Encyclopedia Gallactica.