So what the heck is attitude control?
- Thread starter Axesoleve
- Start date
Um, well...it is attitude control, not altitude control. I mean, it's in space, right? Altitude refers to how far above the planet's surface a ship is, so I don't see how there could be such thing in the middle of space.
In contrast, attitude control refers to determining and maintaining proper orientation in space. This used to confuse me, too. Here's an explanation from Memory Alpha: http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Attitude_control
In contrast, attitude control refers to determining and maintaining proper orientation in space. This used to confuse me, too. Here's an explanation from Memory Alpha: http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Attitude_control
"Attitude control" is a normal phrase, at least in aeronautics and astronautics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_control_system "Attitude" means how you carry yourself -- figuratively in the sense of your manner and behavior, or literally in the sense of your position and orientation. If you rotate your vehicle, you're changing its attitude.
hehe... no big. one thing i'm learning in college is that I definitely don't know as much as i thought...
I haven't read the explanatory links above but I always assumed that attitude in this context would be how two spaceships orientated themselves to each other, or some other similar thing. Afterall, it is amazing how in the endless realms of frozen space two ships come together and are both orientated in the same direction. 
There are various reasons why attitude control would be important for a spacecraft. If you're in a star system, close to the star, you'd want to orient your ship so that it presented the minimum profile to the star, to reduce the amount of heat it received, and you'd want to align any heat radiating surfaces away from or parallel to the sunlight (because if they're in direct sunlight, they're taking in heat and are useless as cooling surfaces). If you're orbiting a planet, you'd want to make sure your sensors, communication antennae, etc. are in the right orientation. Similarly, in present-day space probes or ships, the antenna needs to be kept pointing at Earth for communication, or the cameras or instruments need to be pointed in the right direction for what they're looking at.
Actually, you come off as someone who handles being "caught" in an error with grace and civility. Which is not always the case around here.
I say kudos to you!
A t-shirt I have:
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Love it! 
Sorry Axesoleve, but this thread gave a WTF moment initially. But then I reminded myself that not everyone has been a NASA and airplane junkie from a very early age, and might not know what attitude control is. My bad. I echo what J G had to say, and yes, kudos to you.
Love it!
Sorry Axesoleve, but this thread gave a WTF moment initially. But then I reminded myself that not everyone has been a NASA and airplane junkie from a very early age, and might not know what attitude control is. My bad. I echo what J G had to say, and yes, kudos to you.
Every now and then Geordi has to go down to Engineering and give the warp-core a slap to get it to stop sassing the captain.
So glad to have this answered at last...
Attitude "control" in space, is generally a counter to floating in zero g and to orient yourself. This is often accomplished with an RCS system, or: reaction control system/thrusters. Both real and fictional spacecraft can have them, as they do in Trek.
This is a real life RCS:
This is one in STNG:
This is a real life RCS:
This is one in STNG:
Not a good idea to dredge up an 8 year old thread. I'll leave it open though since it has generated a bit of reasonable comment.
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