What is up is down

On Earth we are grounded and can easily determine up v/s down. The sky is up while down is towards the center of the Earths core. If you are standing on the South Pole you could be conceived as being upside down by someone standing at the North Pole and visa versa even though each is oriented towards the Earths core.

In space there is no up or down and you could approach something flipped 180 degrees to its plane thinking that they are the ones upside down. This spatial flip can take some getting used to but as long as your flight control configuration is designed properly, that is not an issue as you will always operate / think in the context that you are right side up.

At the end of this short paper I have illustrated some intuitive flight control panels. See if you can determine how to use them. Logic, reason and intuition should solve each configuration. Remember that up, down, slide left; slide right; pitch, roll and yaw are all part of flying and docking a space craft.

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