Venus and Neptune are the only round objects that are rotating in different directions in our solar systems. The angular momentum of the proto-planetary disc is preserved in all the bodies with enough mass to preserve said angular momentum following a collision. So every solar system has an inherently “up” and “down” to it’s planetary disc with nearly all the major bodies in said system rotating in a similar fashion.
The ecliptic North Pole (Earth’s plane of orbit) is a bit over 27 degrees off the plane of galactic rotation. Which one is “up” and why would a spacecraft that’s done any number of inclination changes to get there care about it?
I think most space faring civilizations would orient themselves to the the local system they are in. Same way that maps of Manhattan are always rotated 29 degrees so the avenues are running up and down the page. Out in interstellar space i think a ship would orient to the galactic plane just for the ease of navigation. It’s a lot easier for the navigator to plot a course if the ship is already oriented to their maps, e en if the computer does a lot automatically.
But I don’t think mamy ships would spend much time hanging out in interstellar space. There is just way too much nothingness coupled with a shit ton of radiation since you are no longer being protected by local solar wind
Edit: this is all assuming FTL travel. I think the expanse probably does thing things closest to reality with the bulky skyscraper shaped ships that creat artificial gravity from acceleration. They don’t have much in the way to really orient to anything since “up” is the direction of travel.
There’s multiple things you’re mixing up here. There’s the “up” in the global coordinate reference frame. This could be based on the local system, though that makes entering and exiting the system a tiny bit more difficult. More likely it’d be based on galactic coordinates.
There’s also the ship reference frame in the comic. This probably won’t be oriented towards the global coordinate system. It’ll be oriented towards whatever the engines, sensors, and gravity need. Because the ships will all be in orbit, their orientations will probably be changing constantly relative to other ships and the global reference frame. There’s no reason to orient in a single direction and lots of reasons not to (it wastes energy, points your sensors away from the things you want to see, etc).
Not every planet spins in the same direction
Venus and Neptune are the only round objects that are rotating in different directions in our solar systems. The angular momentum of the proto-planetary disc is preserved in all the bodies with enough mass to preserve said angular momentum following a collision. So every solar system has an inherently “up” and “down” to it’s planetary disc with nearly all the major bodies in said system rotating in a similar fashion.
The ecliptic North Pole (Earth’s plane of orbit) is a bit over 27 degrees off the plane of galactic rotation. Which one is “up” and why would a spacecraft that’s done any number of inclination changes to get there care about it?
I think most space faring civilizations would orient themselves to the the local system they are in. Same way that maps of Manhattan are always rotated 29 degrees so the avenues are running up and down the page. Out in interstellar space i think a ship would orient to the galactic plane just for the ease of navigation. It’s a lot easier for the navigator to plot a course if the ship is already oriented to their maps, e en if the computer does a lot automatically.
But I don’t think mamy ships would spend much time hanging out in interstellar space. There is just way too much nothingness coupled with a shit ton of radiation since you are no longer being protected by local solar wind
Edit: this is all assuming FTL travel. I think the expanse probably does thing things closest to reality with the bulky skyscraper shaped ships that creat artificial gravity from acceleration. They don’t have much in the way to really orient to anything since “up” is the direction of travel.
There’s multiple things you’re mixing up here. There’s the “up” in the global coordinate reference frame. This could be based on the local system, though that makes entering and exiting the system a tiny bit more difficult. More likely it’d be based on galactic coordinates.
There’s also the ship reference frame in the comic. This probably won’t be oriented towards the global coordinate system. It’ll be oriented towards whatever the engines, sensors, and gravity need. Because the ships will all be in orbit, their orientations will probably be changing constantly relative to other ships and the global reference frame. There’s no reason to orient in a single direction and lots of reasons not to (it wastes energy, points your sensors away from the things you want to see, etc).