can you turn left and right in space?

Answer 1

You will still know which is your left and right hand so the concept of direction relative to your body orientation is still valid. If your in a spacecraft traveling in a direction called forward and you have a concept of up and down relative to you (e.g. you have a seat or a control so there is a clear up and down relative to it), then you also have concept of left and right.

Answer 2

Yes, but not like in a car or even an airplane.

In space, everything is moving very very fast. There is no friction in space to speak of, so everything is "ballistic" in nature - like bullets, baseballs flying through the air, etc. Even the most powerful rockets in the world produce very little thrust compared with the tremendous speeds.

If you're in a spacecraft and you rotate to the right and fire the rocket, you will alter your course, but your direction is still mostly going to be the same. You can't completely stop and start a new trajectory 90 degrees to the old one, because a lot of that speed keeps you where you are in space.

If you were to stop, you would start falling towards the sun, or whatever other large body you happened to be near. This fact is useful though - it's how the Space Shuttle comes back from orbit. They don't point the nose of the shuttle at the Earth and fire the thrusters. In stead, they point the nose backwards and the engine forwards. (forwards being the direction of the orbit they're on)

When they fire the rockets like this, they're slowing down, and then Earth's gravity pulls the shuttle closer and closer. The idea is to slow down the right amount starting at the right place so the Earth pulls the shuttle into the atmosphere at the place they need in order to be able to land where they want. The space shuttle uses the atmosphere to slow down, which is why it gets so hot on re-entry.

So all in all, while you can actually turn and change your course, it's nothing at all like what you're used to on Earth.

Answer 3

Sure you can, if you have some type of thrust system to "push" you in the right direction. Spacecraft can't steer like airplanes because airplanes rely on air resistance to turn left, turn right, go up, go down, etc. Since there's no air in space, you have to sort of "create your own air," which involves venting air and/or fuel into space to make a craft move. For example, if you wanted to turn a spacecraft to the left you'd have to shoot some type of air or fuel out of the right side of the craft to make the turn. Thrust systems on spacecraft are all backwards, but they're still designed to move your craft in the direction you want to go.

Answer 4

Only if you have agreed on what is 'up' and 'down'.

On Earth, we have gravity to remind us (sometimes painfully) which direction is 'down'. Therefore, our vehicles usually have one side (top) that is very different, and often cleaner, than the other (bottom).

Therefore, when the vehicle moves in a given direction, we already have a 'forward', a 'back', an 'up' and a 'down'. Left and right are easily defined from these.

In space, we have defined a north (using the Earth's orbital plane and the north ecliptic pole at 90 degrees from that plane).

If you are restricting your navigation to within the solar system, you could define 'towards the Sun' as down -- and the opposite as 'up', as most of your travels will use paths that are very close to 'closed orbits' around the Sun (a path would be 'open' only if you are moving faster than the 'escape speed' relative to the Sun).

If you are on a closed path, then the Sun will be the dominant gravity field, telling you which way is down.

Because you will want to be 'cheap' with fuel, you will probably proceed in a 'direct' orbit as opposed to retrograde. ALL planets and most asteroids are on direct orbits -- therefore, you will use the energy from any planet you would start from and continue in the 'Sol-normal' direction [I just made up the name].

Therefore, while on a normal 'direct' closed path around the Sun, 'bottom' will be towards the Sun, 'top' will be the opposite, 'forward' is 'Sol-normal' travelling direction; therefore 'left' will be towards the ecliptic north while 'right' would be towards the ecliptic south.

But, to my knowledge, this has never been discussed officially (mind you, they could have done that without my permission...)

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I aready see a problem:

When the space shuttle is in orbit around Earth, it spends most of its time 'upside-down' as they want the bay doors pointing towards Earth when they are open. Therefore, the 'top' of the vehicle points 'down'.

Anyone in the cockpit in the proper local orientation (e.g., in the fixed seats) would see the 'left' (as we have defined it above) to their right and vice-versa.

Answer 5

Only if you have something to push you in an opposite direction. Like a booster jet on the left of your ship could turn your ship to the right etc.

Answer 6

oh yeah,

The last time I was up there I lost my way cause i took a wrong turn,

Instead of the third right, I took the second right which was wrong, now the question is why was it wrong when it was right..

so u can turn around any ways u want.... right left, up , down etc etc.

only problem is you cant do si without a hand signal.

Answer 7

If you have a reaction-control system, sure. If you have no means of propulsion, you continue on your course (or stay where you are).