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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 8092484" data-attributes="member: 177">"Burn" is a notion from chemical rocketry.  We are talking about technology that can manage FTL.  There's no need for a huge flare in visible light, or anything.And again, your numbers seem to ignore that the rock, taken out of a stable orbit farther out in the system, can simply FALL inwards.  It is only when you are moving out of the system that finding delta-v is terribly difficult.  Falling inwards... it isn't necessarily convenient, but you can get it.  No, it isn't a technique to use on someone when you need them dead this instant.  But, if you can wait a decade, you're all set.If you pick the right rock, you put a solar sail on it - managed so that the sail doesn't reflect back to the target world (which, given the amount of empty space, isn't hard) - just to break it out of its orbit and maneuver it a bit, and wait.  It'll take a while, but there's no "burn" - there's a mild increase in infrared radiation if you happen to look right at the sail.And, if you have artificial gravity on your ships.. just slap some of those generators on a rock, reduce the thing's effective mass, and it then takes next to no energy to get it up to ludicrous speed!  The target won't know unless they look directly at it and see that it's gone plaid, by which time it is too late.</blockquote>