It's one of those delightfully ambivalent questions, but in this particular about distance and space.
Mankind has been reaching for altitude for all it's existence and succeeding spectacularly in the last century or so.
Low Earth Orbit seems to still be 'up' to me. Mars is definitely 'away'!
Is Moon local (up) or away?
Where would our back yard end and "Out There" begin?
[The question of up vs away applies to a very large part of human existence I think.]
There's probably a precise astronomical definition somewhere.
When I typed the question into Google I got a very squishy scattered answer.
Ah Well!
BTW: We <tCaI> trust you are having as much fun as you want to this weekend.
We are having a massive two day Pandora, Tuna and Root Beer party here on the Mountain!
There isn't a precise definition of "up" vs "away". To somebody studying orbital mechanics, anything that doesn't involve the phrase "terminal impact" is just a matter of delta-v. In a purely technical sense, "Up" is really just a special case in the more general family of "Away", since moving upward is moving away from the center of mass of the body you're moving upward from.
As a quick, unofficial sort of guideline, I'd say that when you're moving from body A to body B, you're going "up" with respect to body A until you reach the point where body A's gravity is no longer the primary force acting on your trajectory. At that point, you're moving "away" from body A, and just to make it more interesting, you're more than likely moving "down" toward body B.
Just to add to the confusion (because I like causing headaches), there's no reason at all that you can't describe the entire trajectory between body A and body B in terms of moving downward toward body B. This at least gets rid of the transition between "up" and "away", but can cause some really odd cases of brain strain.
Thank you! Thank you!
(My 'bread upon the water' is coming back as 'cake'.)
I knew someone 'out there' had an inquiring intellect and a functional cerebral cortex!
Want to take a shot at the 'border' between Here and There?
"Here" is a precise point, typically the point at which the the object or person under discussion is located (often it's the location of the person discussing/describing locational relationships, or the location of a third party or objective of interest). "There" is any point that is not "Here" :D
Oh, time is nowhere near as simple. With time, you have What Is, What Is Becoming, and What Will Be
Or, for a more modern western mindset, What Was, What Is, and What Will Be.
Of course, the modern western mindset tends to fail to learn from history (since What Was/What Came Before can't *possibly* have any relevance to What Is Currently Happening...)
At what point does 'up' become 'away'?
Mankind has been reaching for altitude for all it's existence and succeeding spectacularly in the last century or so.
Low Earth Orbit seems to still be 'up' to me. Mars is definitely 'away'!
Is Moon local (up) or away?
Where would our back yard end and "Out There" begin?
[The question of up vs away applies to a very large part of human existence I think.]
When I typed the question into Google I got a very squishy scattered answer.
Ah Well!
BTW: We <tCaI> trust you are having as much fun as you want to this weekend.
We are having a massive two day Pandora, Tuna and Root Beer party here on the Mountain!
As a quick, unofficial sort of guideline, I'd say that when you're moving from body A to body B, you're going "up" with respect to body A until you reach the point where body A's gravity is no longer the primary force acting on your trajectory. At that point, you're moving "away" from body A, and just to make it more interesting, you're more than likely moving "down" toward body B.
Just to add to the confusion (because I like causing headaches), there's no reason at all that you can't describe the entire trajectory between body A and body B in terms of moving downward toward body B. This at least gets rid of the transition between "up" and "away", but can cause some really odd cases of brain strain.
(My 'bread upon the water' is coming back as 'cake'.)
I knew someone 'out there' had an inquiring intellect and a functional cerebral cortex!
Want to take a shot at the 'border' between Here and There?
Or, Now and/or Never!
Or, for a more modern western mindset, What Was, What Is, and What Will Be.
Of course, the modern western mindset tends to fail to learn from history (since What Was/What Came Before can't *possibly* have any relevance to What Is Currently Happening...)