Re: superhero space navigation

On Mon, 7 Apr 2008 04:14:29 +0000 (UTC), Andrew Plotkin
<erkyrath@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Here, Leonard Erickson <shadow@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Ok, I've been playing with a story idea involving superpowers. (Yeah,
>> I know, not exactly hard sf)
>> 
>> What'm wondering is how someone who can "fly" and survive in outer
>> space would navigate. Assuming no supersenses, of course.
>> 
>> I can see visual nabvigation between the earth and the moon. But
>> beyond that getting lost would seem awfully easy.
>
>Visual navigation should work well for planets out to Saturn, if the
>person has even a rough diagram of where all the planets are vs the
>background constellations.
>
>If you're lost, head towards the sun. Now look towards the appropriate
>constellation. The bright thing is a planet. (With the sun at your
>back, everything is illuminated in full.)

Alas, the sky is gonna be a *lot* more cluttered. I seem to recall
that outside the atmosphere something like double the number of stars
will be naked eye visible.

But assuming that can be dealt with, I guess I'll have to see what
sort of astronomy programs are available for older handhelds (the
super in question is a teen and doesn't have a lot of money to spare,
so it'll be older or cheap gear)

> It will help to carry something to measure the angular size of the
>sun. A narrow metal wedge, calibrated for arms'-length, would be good
>enough. You just need to know whether you're a decent distance inside
>the orbit of (whichever planet you're aiming for).

Fortunately, part of the "able to survive in space includes protection
against radiation *including* overly bright light. So the super can
just look at the sun and use a ruler or something.

Hmmm. Come to thing of it, the old medieval "cross staff" navigational
tool might prove useful for measuring angles. And it's cheap and easy
to make. Thanks.

I do wonder what a normal GPS will do in low orbit (I know the
satellites are about halfway to geosynch, so they'll still be giving
useful data).