Things have really started moving. I think I've finally pushed through most of the key tasks and problems and found mechanisms and workable solutions.
Automatically stopping the ship's rotation on a player or AI request works beautifully. I found a way around the gyroscope locking problem. Yes, it turned out to be mathematical as well as physical. If anyone encounters it, it should be very rare, and most likely never. That can be fixed too, but it's complicated.
The sensor's scanning sector now flies and turns with the ship; before, it hung proudly in space on its own. The ship's list of sensors, however long or short, now appears on screen as a column of interactive, informative buttons. They let you control the sensors and see their state and mode.
This matters a lot because interfaces are a whole field of knowledge and skills in themselves. Given the number of systems and the depth of control possible for our ships, there will be a great deal of interface work! A rigid, prearranged screen won't do. Everything has to be interactive and respond to different ships, different mechanisms and systems, and varying numbers of them, from zero to hundreds. It's quite a challenge, but I can see light at the end of the tunnel, and today I built a working foundation for it.
P.S. The AI must also be able to operate all these player controls. So far, that's working, even though there's no interface or set of controls when no player is present... )))