Bearings in space

[GoodGame]

And why not extrapolate that to the 'subspace' beacons (Trekkie Subspace radio). Navigating by polar coordinates between beacons should be easy then, as long as the paths were chartered. That would make the most sense for space 'lanes', where beaconing without an expert would be easy. The only problem is that the beacons must be relative fixed items---planets/moons/planetoids, and probably satellites around those. Stationary beacons could be possible with bases that use engines to correct their position (as 3D polar coords) relative to local system features. Probably no two paths in a particular space length will be exactly the same due to the movements of the planetary bodies that the beacons are stationed on.

Originally Posted by laserdog

I believe the term is "astrogation"?

And from what I understand, you take a reference "picture" (visible, radio, x-ray) of all the stars you can see, and then tell the computer "calculate the position in the universe/galaxy where the stars would look like this".

The computer could, of course, make some "educated guesses" based on previous navigation logs to make the process go much faster.

Also, afaik all pulsars have unique pulse times, which can make an incredibly useful and indentifiable single points of reference.

This is, of course, assuming a TL of 9+. I believe for the inter-solar space flight of TL 7 and 8 you'd just use fix pointed radio signal beacons to figure out where you're at.