Is there North, South, East & West when you're in space?

Answer 1

no what a moron.

Answer 2

Likely you could still use Polaris (the North Star) for navigation, and the opposite direction would be "called south." However east and west would no longer be meaningful when related to earth because it would be spinning relative to your position. Of course, while in space orbiting the earth east and west are still relevant.

Answer 3

Not in space, except that you can still look at the earth as a globe and identify those directions *on the planet*.

Remember that those directions are defined by the poles of the earth, and so apply only to the earth.

You can convince yourself of this by asking, as you stand on earth, which compass direction is straight up. Extend that line infinitely into space, and along that line there is obviously no NSEW.

Answer 4

No.

Because you only get stable magnetic fields near planetary bodies. AND, because in space you're no longer traveling on the ground. you can go in all 3 directions...

You now have to use co-ordinates....

You need to describe all 3 axis... up-down,left right, forward and back.
You have to agree on a reference point... usually a star.
and then describe your location as distance from it.....

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So a coordinate of -3,5,7 lightyears from Sol (our sun)
COULD be 3 lightyears down, 5 lightyears left, 7 lightyears forward... (IF you use my origional UP-down, left right, forward-back...assuming that the first item of each co-ordinate pair is positive.) Again, you have to agree apon the format for the starchart.

While it CAN be complex...it's really simple to work out. Kinda like giving directions to get to a nearby store.

say..... go left 3 blocks go forward 3 blocks and up to the 4th floor of the red building.

Because yer in a spaceship, you can pretty much go straight there like a rocket (go fig) without zig zagging.
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Here you can find a searchable database that will tell you where things are that we have discovered so far....using coordinates and range.
http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/


Now since everything is moving (slowly out from the center of the universe....) eventually the distance between locations will slowly shift and space maps need to be updated...but it's over lifetimes not years....

you'll find a nice page with more info and diagrams here....
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Spatial_reference_systems
"Spatial coordinates and timing conventions are adopted in order to consistently identify locations and motions of an observer, of natural objects in the solar system, and of spacecraft traversing interplanetary space or orbiting planets or other bodies. Without these conventions it would be impossible to navigate the solar system. "


Hope I helped you!

-dawgy

Answer 5

Nope. Those are compass directions based on the Earth's magnetic field. There is no magnetic field in space. So you cant use your GPS unit in space.

Answer 6

No, these directions only have meaning relative to Earth's magnetic field.

Answer 7

no