Yeah, that is what I meant by frying everything at the termination point. It is assumed that there would be an immense release of ionizing radiation at the end “contracted” point of the warp bubble…like a gamma ray burst. So you would not even have time to say “howdy!” to the possible lifeforms on a target planet before they would all die in a similar manner to being at ground zero of an atomic bomb detonation.

Real GRBs are bad enough. Let’s not go around making new ones. Think about the (alien) children.

Ok, so they got Jupiter mass down to 7-800 kg or so.

So one problem “down”, a whole host of others to go.

I say we nuke the Moon, and see if that attracts any friendly aliens that can just tell us how to make a warp drive. Much quicker.

the ship remains still and warps space in front and behind it to move without moving

So a physicist saw a Pollack holding a Jiffy Pop pan while four other Pollacks shook the stove underneath it and said “Hey! I’ve got an idea for faster-than-light travel!”