Re: superhero space navigation

On 2008-04-07, Leonard Erickson <shadow@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> What'm wondering is how someone who can "fly" and survive in outer
> space would navigate. Assuming no supersenses, of course.

They'd probably want a decent skill in naked-eye astronomy.  How far
do they need to travel?


> I can see visual nabvigation between the earth and the moon. But
> beyond that getting lost would seem awfully easy.

Yes, Earth/Moon navigation would be pretty trivial.


> And even near earth there are problems. I seem to recall that
> hand-held GPS units don't work and speeds much above 200 mph.

GPS wouldn't be a lot of use out beyond low orbit.  It really wouldn't
be needed out there anyway.  If they can find Earth at all, they could
get within a few hundred km of the desired location just by sight, and
then use GPS after getting closer.


> And what will work for interplanetary navigation?

Visual navigation would work, though might not be the most efficient.
It should be pretty easy to use the stars to get orientation, and
size/heat from the Sun to get approximate radius.  Then use the
brighter planets as landmarks.  It should be easy enough to remember
roughly where they should be in relation to other points of interest,
just in case of equipment failure.

Finding some particular asteroid or a body like Pluto would present
something of a challenge without equipment, though.  Even a pair of
good binoculars and some form of rugged portable computer would help a
lot.  There are numerous programs that can show how the sky should
appear from a given location in space at a given time.


So how fast can this superperson fly in space, anyway?  Any
interplanetary journey is very likely to be extremely tedious.


- Tim