How do direction work in space because north,east,west and south are bonded to earth? How does a spacecraft guide itself in the unending space?
In: Physics
Earth based directions (North/South/East/West/Up/Down) don’t work, so we create a new “frame of reference”.
A frame of reference is a way of looking at and measuring things. Walking around your neighborhood, you use N/S/E/W, but if you were walking on a huge cruise ship sailing through the ocean, you would use Fore/Aft/Port/Starboard, no matter which direction the boat was pointed. We would say we are moving towards the port side, even if the boat is moving west, so Pot is actually south. We would say we’re walking towards the Port side at 1.6 km/hour (1 miles/hour), even if the boat is moving forward through the ocean at 32 km/hour (20 mile/hour).
In the same way, we can create different frames of reference for outer space. One frame of reference when you are orbiting close to earth, another when you are far from earth and orbiting the Sun, another when getting close to the moon / Mars, etc…
A great and fun way to experience this is to play Kerbal Space Program.
Latest Answers