Space Engineers – Space Terminology Guide

Direction In Space

 
There is no “up” or “down” in space. Such terms are useless when there is no gravity. On Earth, “down” is the direction that gravity pulls us. In space, however, there is no gravity. Not everyone’s “down” is in the same direction, which may have terrible consequences during combat. “How in the hell do I keep my crew oriented, then?”, you may ask. Well, IRL space engineers already solved this for us. Tell your friends to look toward these directions when communicating instead. 
 
Prow- The forward section of a vessel, which is usually designed in a way that exposes the least surface area to enemy weapons. (Many spaceships in the future will likely be pencil shaped, and keep their pointy end facing the enemy.) 
 
Stern- The rear section of a vessel, usually where most of the engines are mounted. (Enemies will have a much harder time hitting your engines if there’s a hundred meters of steel in the way.) 
 
*An IRL vessel will likely act exactly like crafts in “The Expanse”, and have to decelerate with its stern facing toward the prograde vector. This means that combat will essentially be an orbital jousting match, with either side too afraid to slow down or expose their engines until they go out of effective combat range. See the show’s numerous space battles for an example of perfect realism. 
 
Port- The right side of a vessel, 90 degrees clockwise from the prow. 
 
Starboard- The left side of a vessel, 270 degrees clockwise from the prow. 
 
Dorsal- The top of a vessel, located 90 degrees from both the port and starboard. 
 
Ventral- The bottom of a vessel, 180 degrees from the dorsal side. Landing gear often go here. 
 
*The Port / Starboard and Dorsal / Ventral sides are usually symmetrical, so that the vehicle’s thrust vector points directly through its center of mass. If not, the engines must gimbal (rotate their nozzles) to compensate and keep the craft’s rotation arrested. The game automatically does this for us, so it is not as much of a concern compared to real life rockets. 
 
Prograde- The direction that the vessel is currently moving in. 
 
Retrograde- The exact opposite of prograde. 
 
*Prograde and Retrograde on any vessel will remain the same, regardless of the vessel’s current heading, until engines accelerate it in a different direction. (Even if it turned around and faced backwards or sideways, it would still be moving along the same vector because of Newton’s Laws.) 
 
Radial In / Out- Toward or away from the planet you are orbiting. 
 
*It is actually possible in the game to reach space by going straight up and holding a radial out heading, which is entirely unrealistic because that’s not how orbits work. (IRL, you would need to move with the rotation of the Earth at 7800 m/s of speed, assuming an altitude of 200 km.) 
 
Normal / Anti-Normal- Vectors used to raise or lower orbital inclination. 
 
*Normal and Anti-Normal have almost zero effect on the game because orbital mechanics and Kepler’s laws of orbital motion are completely violated at all times. (It’s too hard to do it like KSP.) 
 
 
 

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