Once we have ‘boldly gone where no man has gone before’ we must ask, where are we? In order to travel the galaxy, we will need to know where we are going. How do you develop a map of the galaxy? How do you know where you are so you can get back to Earth? Humans have been asking for thousands of years. I will discuss the history of navigation and mapping, how we will navigate in the future, and finally how realistic the fictional technologies invented for SciFi tv shows and moves are for space travel.

Angela Collier completed her PhD at the University of Kentucky. She recently moved from the Appalachian mountains and into the Rockies to start a postdoc at JILA/CU Boulder. She works on all things dynamics, from asteroid belts to star clusters to galaxies.  In her spare time she enjoys going to the gym and watching the Great British Bake Off.