"Some distant part of the Universe"

[makattak]

If I recall, Chrichton is an astronaut. (I think I've seen the equivalent one episode of Farscape, total.)

As such, he should be familiar with stellar objects.

Can he not surmise that he is in a distant part of the universe if the galaxies he can see (aided, obviously) are unfamiliar?

[Devonai]

Astronauts are not necessarily astronomers, and unless he brought a full-color photo book of Messier objects (or has them loaded on a smart phone, PDA, etc), I would imagine he is crap out of luck.

[AJ Dual]

If I recall, Chrichton is an astronaut. (I think I've seen the equivalent one episode of Farscape, total.)

As such, he should be familiar with stellar objects.

Can he not surmise that he is in a distant part of the universe if the galaxies he can see (aided, obviously) are unfamiliar?

Actually, he wasn't just an astronaut/test-pilot, but was also the physicist who developed the wormhole tech. (his run in the module was not supposed to "work", just generate some low level er... pre-wormhole data to get some confirmation of his theories.)

So, yeah, a guy like that could probably be smart enough to look for a few notable galaxies/Messier objects or the Megelannic clouds using Moya's and Pilot's help to at least make an educated guess if he was still at least in the Milky Way. Even looking at the central black hole in the core might give him some clues. Even with our primitive 21st century tech we have "movies" of the stars orbiting the central black hole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE_uPcRV5hE&NR=1

On top of that, there's a few objects in the galaxy that are visible in some wavelength or another from most anywhere in the galaxy unless the core is directly in the way. A couple of starbursts due galactic north/south to get above/below the disk for a better view would make this even easier.

[AZRedhawk44]

Astronauts are not necessarily astronomers, and unless he brought a full-color photo book of Messier objects (or has them loaded on a smart phone, PDA, etc), I would imagine he is crap out of luck.

His little "module" probably had radar, laser rangefinding, and radio triangulation to the Space Shuttle from which it launched, and purely for re-docking purposes.  There were computer systems in it, but they were specialized to the flight instruments he had and were not generalized Windows/Linux boxes against which he would have accidentally thrown in "Google Space" or some other mediocre program accidentally.

I doubt even the Space Shuttle launches with anything sophisticated enough to analyze the night sky and determine constellations.  Unless one of the astronauts happens to bring his Android phone.  The shuttles still launch with 486-era computers running everything.  There may be payloads that contain more sophisticated equipment by accident... but I suspect the orbiter itself is blind to the stars and relies on GPS and ground-based radio telemetry.

[Sindawe]

Aeryn Sun? Eh... half-man... at least.

Well, if you were married to this:



I don't doubt that you would find Aeryn Sun radiant.

[TommyGunn]

   I thought "Predator" was bad ........ 

[kgbsquirrel]

...

I doubt even the Space Shuttle launches with anything sophisticated enough to analyze the night sky and determine constellations.  Unless one of the astronauts happens to bring his Android phone.  The shuttles still launch with 486-era computers running everything.  There may be payloads that contain more sophisticated equipment by accident... but I suspect the orbiter itself is blind to the stars and relies on GPS and ground-based radio telemetry.

The space shuttle mounts two optical star trackers that is uses to calibrate the IMU's and correct them for drift.

http://www.ballaerospace.com/page.jsp?page=104

Various versions of these "electro-optical sextants" (my term) have been used regularly for the past half century of space flight, be it exploratory/commercial shots or sub-orbital/fractional orbit weapon systems.

[AZRedhawk44]

The space shuttle mounts two optical star trackers that is uses to calibrate the IMU's and correct them for drift.

http://www.ballaerospace.com/page.jsp?page=104

Various versions of these "electro-optical sextants" (my term) have been used regularly for the past half century of space flight, be it exploratory/commercial shots or sub-orbital/fractional orbit weapon systems.

Sweet.  I am happy to be proven wrong.  Very neat tech.

[kgbsquirrel]

Sweet.  I am happy to be proven wrong.  Very neat tech.

Yup, very neat stuff. And fictional story not withstanding, if Chrichton's pod had been carrying even one of the new, small, Star Trackers, such as from Ball Aerospace, it would already have the star catalogs stored on board.


Hmm, I wonder if I can get one for my truck? Suck it, Garmin! :D