Where Do We Go?
There are already some great resources that should be encouraged and developed through the process of planning Interstellar Travel. These include dictionaries, catalogs, and other compilations of Information that will be one of the most vital assets aboardship.
The Guide Star Catalog is used for positioning the Hubble Space Telescope. It contains the location of nearly a billion stars, With the current estimated number of stars in the Milky Way by some to be 100 Billion, the knowledge that we are done with possibly 1% of the entire Galaxy should be heartening indeed. And the fact that the information is Online is a step in the right direction.
As our sight grows longer and our skills at maintaining charts expanded, we will eventually be able to catalog nearly the entirety of the Galaxy, although that is most likely hundreds if not thousands of years in the future. The knowledge we accumulate will help us learn more about our place in the galaxy, as well as open the path for future generations to continue the exploration.
Basics of Navigation
The fundamental skill to Navigating a spaceship is the ability to read a Star Chart. These charts will most likely be digital in nature, being viewed in 3D rendering from any angle. As a backup, there will be lists of Stars and other Objects maintained, allowing a crew to plot their course mathematically against their knowledge of the stars nearby.
Reading other instrumentation will be vital. The speed of the ship, the time traveled, the direction, all of these will be needed measurements to triangulate the ship in local Space.
Navigation Topics
- Fixing Position
- Computing Course
- Execute Drive
Possible Hazards in Navigating
- Nebula
- Meteors
- Magnetic Anamolies
- Interstellar Dust
- Black Holes
- Radiation Storms
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