How come we dont go North or South into space??

I know in space there is no 'up or down' but we always seem to go horizontal from earth. Have we ever launched probes that just go up above the earth or that drop down below it? I know the other planets in solar system wont be in a perfect line with the earth but they are more or less horizontally outwards from us which is where we always go. Would be interesting to see whats in the murky depths of space imo!

*Unless theyve looked already and there is nothing there

You do get polar satellites too, I dont know what they are used for...

i'm really not sure what your getting at here, spacecraft of all kinds have been launched in all kinds of directions, some go to Low Earth Orbit and regularize the orbit so the craft doesn't crash back down (quickly before the usual orbital decay) or geosync between the sun and earth so it appears to hover relative to us.

in essence nothing in space is a straight line to begin with, as I stated some place else, there is no up down, as for north south, magnetic domains don't align like earths core in the vacuum, and as for the depths of space I'm still waiting on data from outside the heliosphere (suns atmosphere, without going into massive detail. it surrounds the solar system.)

space is 3d, and star wars for example, does not do it justice by flying giant ships in formation like theres an extra gravity plane.

ed: if you really want to look in detail at a north south equivilent you could use the center of the galaxy as a referance, or the universe's source point, which afaik hasn't been found? no? but yea, general relativity, everything is relative to everything else.

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


Well north and south refer to the magentic (almost) poles on earth and have no relation to space travel.

to answer your question though, Galaxies are formed as discs, they don't all line up with each and every other galaxy, but within our own, there's not much point in going "up" or "down" as it's mostly empty space, the bulk of the matter is in a disc shaped galaxy.

Here's a good example, I believe this is andromeda:



now we're looking at it from a tilted point of view, the best way to describe this is that you are looking roughly down and to the side of a flat disc. the bulk of the matter stays within that disc shape, but from within it you wouldn't really see this.

An even better example is our milkyway. look up into the night sky and see how the stars are all around us. So it seems. But when you catch a glimpse of the milkyway it gets clear, it looks like a band running across the sky. Because we are inside the galaxy looking out through the side of it, so it appears to be a massive line, but flip that over and you'd see our spiral galaxy.

It has to do with the rotation of the earth helping put stuff into space easier. The details I don't know. Could be winds or a gravational effect

When you launch towards the East, you get some help from the Earth's rotation, especially the closer you are to the Equator.

reply to post by mikellmikell

It has to do with the rotation of the earth helping put stuff into space easier. The details I don't know. Could be winds or a gravational effect

he's not asking why we launch the way we do, he's asking why we send probes and such out along the galactic plane instead of up or down outside of it. i answered that above. It's mostly empty space outside of our galaxy.

He's asking why we stick to Zero on the Y axis (or is it Z ?) instead of moving about in 3 dimensions.

this is very true, if you try to launch retrograde, or in earths case our west, some planets differ..some gravity effects become larger than the opposite direction, because your going against the fields rather than with them

quote : It's mostly empty space outside of our galaxy.

I beg to differ, empty space was proven years ago to be a bs statement =)

So basically theres just nothing there to see??

It all depends on what you want your machine to do after it's launched. There are satellites that are launched into polar orbits that can help with surveillance and tracking. A satellite launched into a polar orbit such that it circles the earth once a day could potentially be accessible from the same side of the planet almost constantly, although not as well as one that is in an equatorial geosynchronous orbit. Such surveillance works better when there are more than one satellite spaced out in such orbits all coordinating with each other.

For North American launches, most are sent out over the Atlantic from Florida heading eastwards for a generally equatorial orbit. The eastward direction is the same way that the earth is spinning, so a rocket launched eastward has the benefit of a little extra momentum in order to use less fuel to get to orbit. It also helps going out over the ocean eastwards for avoiding problems if something goes wrong and everything comes down prematurely. This way, most parts can safely fall into the ocean, far away from most human habitation. The same safety issues apply for polar orbits. For the United States, many launches for polar orbits are launched from the Pacific coast heading southwards, in order to keep it mostly over the ocean as well.

on the contary friend, type universe into google images and sort for the high definition ones =D

the problem is the speed limit, or so called. rockets can't break or even approach light speed, and if 4d travel has been invented, the general public don't know about it, or have very little information, another subject for debate in itself. also antigravity. basically we need to go faster, else it would take 100 years to find out whats in the nearest depths of 'nothingness'

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


Someone can correct me on this but it's taken around 10-15yrs or more for the first probe to reach the outer limits of our solar systems planets.

There's no point in sending stuff up or down on the earths axis because there is nothing there to see.

Originally posted by phishyblankwaters
reply to post by Idonthaveabeard

 

Well north and south refer to the magentic (almost) poles on earth and have no relation to space travel.

to answer your question though, Galaxies are formed as discs, they don't all line up with each and every other galaxy, but within our own, there's not much point in going "up" or "down" as it's mostly empty space, the bulk of the matter is in a disc shaped galaxy.

That's a incredibly linear way of thinking lol....Solar systems are above and below us on the equatorial plane of the Milky Way, other Galaxies are above and below the Milky Way as well..We don't launch from our poles because there is way to much magnetic interference from our magnetosphere. That is why we do not have true Polar satellites..Another reason is The U.S. doesn't allow circumpolar flights of any sort since the cold war..It's too short of a distance to analyze if it's a satellite/shuttle or a a ICBM threat.. Also it is way too Harsh and Windy of an Environment to even contemplate building a Launch Station, at least with current Launching Technology known to the public..They need clear skies and good weather for a launch and I'm not sure they have those at our poles regularly enough.

reply to post by SadButTrue


en.wikipedia.org...

longer.

Well, I think basically, it all starts with Newtonian Physics. Pretty much no matter which way we go, either staying on the orbital plane, or, going 90 degrees (or some other angle) to it, just leaving the Earth, isn't enough. We need help from other orbital bodies.

So we approach them from different angles and depending on just how we approach them deflects or trajectory differently. But once out of the plane of the planets, we get no more help, so unless we have a lot of power to propel us, we are going no where fast.

Until the gov, lets us have those gravity engines they're hiding, all we got is what we do. Planet to planet to where ever!

you have to time slingshots so your craft will arrive at the right date also, and the only people I know with certainty that can do that calculation in their sleeps are nasa and esa.

It is much more difficult to launch satellites or spacecraft in a northerly or southerly direction, because you are not getting the benefit of the Earth's rotation. In addition, don't assume that launching a spacecraft directly north would mean rising up out of the ecliptic plane at a right angle. You have to remember that the Earth is moving at a speed of 30kms per second in its orbit around the Sun. Therefore, if you launched a spacecraft with a velocity of 30kms per second directly north (an extremely difficult, and at the moment impossible task), you would end up with an orbit inclined 45 degrees to the ecliptic plane, not 90.

This is why the Ulysses solar probe was sent to Jupiter first. It needed to use Jupiter's enormous gravitational field to bend its trajectory sufficiently for it to get into a polar solar orbit.

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


The direct we launch a satellite in is a function of two things: the inclination to the equator that we want the orbit plane to have, and the latitude of the launch site. Launch sites also have safety constraints - they can't launch in just any direction because that would take the rocket over populated areas.

In the United states, there are basically four active launch sites: The Cape in Florida, Wallops Island in Virginia, Vandenberg AFB in California, and Poker Flats in Alaska. Worldwide, there are many other sites, including the European site in French Guiana.

In the U.S., if we want to launch a satellite into a polar orbit (usually for Earth Observation purposes), we use Vandenberg, or less commonly, Alaska. Other orbits use Wallops Island or Cape Canaveral. From Vandenberg, we launch almost due south, which takes a penalty against the Earth's rotation, but allows us to get into one of the more desirable orbits for Earth observation, the sun synchronous orbit, which is slightly retrograde. From the Cape or Wallops, launches are in an Easterly direction, which allows the rocket to get some additional velocity from the rotation of the Earth. This is one reason why launch sites near the equator are desirable.