Navigating in Space, how do they do it?
How does a space probe like Voyager 2 which was launched in 1977 visit the four outer planets and travel over 17 billion kilometers over a space of 40 years with almost next there nothing in the way of fuel. Apollo astronauts used three navigation systems to determine the proper flight paths to the Moon and back to Earth. These systems were used jointly or separately. Together they formed the Primary Guidance and Navigation System. By the time Voyager 2 had reached Neptune it had swung by Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus traveled 7 billion kilometers and was still within 100 kilometers of its target and all with mid-1970s technology. In the movies spacecraft just seemed to fly where they want and get there in no time at all but in our version of reality it's somewhat more complicated and takes much, much longer to get around. Can you imagine Spock saying to Kirk "we've just passed Pluto almost home only nine years to go" just in case you missed the rele...