No lunar base? ASTEROIDS!

[cjolley]

I always wondered.. If you're flying at more or less the speed of light and then shoot a gun in your direction of travel, what's going to happen?
Also, same scenario and I turn on a flashlight...

That's not too complicated as I recall.
To you the bullet would appear to travel in the same trajectory and speed it would if you shot it backwards or on earth. Just normal bullet stuff.
The light from the flashlight would appear to go move at the speed of light, just like always.

To an outside observer the bullet would appear to accelerate less than it should and not exceed C no matter how big the bang.
The light from the flashlight would seem to go C as usual, but it would be red or blue shifted to them depending on whether you were approaching them or receding away from them.

At least that is what I recall from teaching High School physics 25 years ago

[TransformX]

But what about light then? Do your screens go blank? Does your computer stop operating because the electrons move at a speed below what your vessel does? If you switch on a flashlight, what will happen?

[cjolley]

Everything just looks normal.

With this caveat: I'm talking about if you are going just below the speed of light.

If you are going just above it? I have no idea. I think the energy equations are symmetrical and asymptotic to infinity at C so I suppose you would not notice the difference then either. But it's a guess.

You might have some trouble slowing down after you got to that speed though.
Something about taking no energy to go infinitely fast but infinite energy to slow to the speed of light.

I personally don't think it will turn out to be possible in any practical sense.
Hope I'm wrong...

[Marshmallowman]

At those speeds you should be seeing time dilation effects. eg the stationary observer would be seeing you slow down. Also you could/would not be at the speed of light , "you would be approaching the speed of light" or more specifically c, because the speed of light varies in different medium(just to cloud the issue )