Space Lan

What would happen if a spaceship pilot forgets directions after reaching space?

what would happen say, if a spaceship pilot reaches moon but then forgets directions how to get back to earth. Instead he flies in wrong directions. What is his chance of returning back to earth through guesswork of directions? For example on road if a motorist forgets directions, he roams around but eventually making u-turns and following signs he gets back to the right place. Can that be done in space too for spaceship pilot?

Public Comments

1. Not really because there are the instruments on the spaceship to help guild them and the people in the ground control would be able to help guild them back also i think most astronauts are skilled at astronavigation and would be able to find there way back unless they ran out of fuel when they were lost out there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronavigation
2. kinda like the Dems got elected to Congress for the majority but forgot what the heck we sent them there for, anyway like gas $4 a gallon when we are sitting on more reserves than the middle east and we pay FOUR times the cost of the IRAQI war every day - - - - just to buy fuel ********** excuse the rant - nope - wouldn;t happen - these boys and girls are SO well trained was at the Florida State Fair a few years back and they had a simulator for the last 2 minutes of a Space Shuttle 'dead stick' landing at Kennedy Space Center dead stick means - you have NO engine thrust - and you only get one shot let's say I killed everybody on board the 5 times I tried not EVEn close ********************* and for a Moon shot - - the "window" to hit the Earth's atmosphere is so slim - a couple of degrees too steep - and you burn up - - - a couple too light - and you skip off into space realizing - you use the moon's gravity to slingshot you home if you skip out - - - bye bye ****************************** nope - great computer planning - - - - great question have a great day!
3. All of that is calculated before the ship ever leaves Earth, and it's programmed into the ship's computer. Also, ground control can override everything and take complete control of the ship. They leave no room for pilot error.
4. no... if you get lost in space, without any directions you are screwed (the stars and your relative position count as directions..... so pretty much you ALWAYS have a road map of space, since we've spent so long studying stars) besids, if you were to go the moon, you could still easily see earth.... now if you were to go the edge of our galaxy with no way what so ever to know earth's true position, you'd be completely fucked..... space is far to vast for us to make a mistake.... you spend a month traveling, you run the nearly inevitable mistake of going in the wrong direction, and being even farther off from your target and making it vastly even less likely you'd make it.
5. It's not possible. You're limiting your thinking to earth thinking where we have horizons and buildings and trees and mountains that block our view and distort our sense of direction. Basically in space, you have the astronaut telling Mission Control where he is at given intervals. His job is to confirm the path that the planners at Mission Control have layed out for him months in advance. The real guidance is done by hundreds of earthlings at Mission Control. They're constantly checking the location and speed of the spacecraft at all times. An astronaut cannot get lost in space. The reason the guidance is done on earth is to save space and weight on the spacecraft, and to keep the astronaut from getting overworked.
6. Guess work will not work out. Space is not like a road. When he has chosen the wrong direction and notices it, it will be much harder to correct the error. Instead of a position alone, spacecraft rely on a state vector, the combination of velocity and position. You not only have to reach the right place, but also the right velocity for getting back to Earth. But when you have paid attention in spaceflight school, you can use a sheet of paper, a pencil, a watch and visual cues to navigate back home with rough accuracy. Still, if you can't restore your navigation systems, for example by radar measurements from the ground, you are very likely dead soon. For maneuvers like entering the atmosphere, you need extreme accuracy, or you will burn up... or even worse. Get deflected back into space.
7. There is much more freedom for a pilot, than for a driver. But if he have unlimited fuel and unlimited knowledge, then he will have success. There are also signs in space -- stars and planets, which can help pilot to orientate. But he is to know their orbits.
8. Lost in space.
9. The project director on earth (NASA maybe?) will get fired for sending an incompetent pilot into space... :)
10. It is extremely hard to change direction in large scales in space without the aide of a big body (moons, planets, sun). It is kind of like shooting a gun. Once the bullet leaves, it is pretty much going to follow that directory. Space travel between body involves accelerating to leave the orign gravitational field and then decelerate to be captured by the destination gravitation field. Nothing, beside minor (and I do mean minor) correction is needed in between.