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?

Question

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

Answer 1

Aerospace engineer here!

The short answer is basically however you want it to!

The long answer is something called frames of reference.

A frame of reference, or reference frame, is how you determine your position and orientation relative to another object. On Earth we tend to use down as the direction earth is pulling us, up as the opposite and then north/south/east/west for planar (side to side, forward-back) directions. In space however, there is no absolute frame of reference.

You could be x miles from the earth and y miles from something else. (This also effects velocity but we won’t go into that unless someone asks).

So which reference frame do you use? Whichever one works best. Some times the math is easier if you use earth as a reference frame, sometimes it’s easier if you use the sun.