How is math used in outer space?

Answer 1

ou need maths to get anything to space in the first place: Complex calculations are needed to determine the amount of fuel required to send a given load into the orbit you want it to go to.

You will also need to calculate the orbit in order for example to obtain a geosynchronous orbit for your satelite.

GPS equipment has to perform calculations to determine how far it is from each of the satelites it can receive, and then calculate the position of the GPS device.

GPS satelites were designed by the US Military, but becasue they would be available commercially the US Army limited the accuracy that could be obtained from GPS to 10m. Until some clever bloke worked out how to calculate much more precise positioning by taking into account the phase between the signals from the GPS satelites - so we can now all get GPS positioning accurate to a few cm!

Space probes send tracking data to Earth wher controlers determine where the probe is and if a correction is needed to the trajectory.

These corrections are then performed by sithcing some control jets on for a short and precise time interval.

Sometimes on some maneuvers (such as orbital insertions) it might take too long for the info to be sent to Earth and an instruction to be sent back. So the calculations are performed by the probes themselves using complex computer programs to determine the requried trajectory corrections.

These are just a few examples.