Android bar, move to left hand side in landscape?

[Ags]

I just got an Asus Memo Pad, it only cost 120 euros but it feels comparable to my partner's iPad 2 (except it very occasionally fails to render complex web pages - SGL - correctly). Another place you can feel the budget is Google Sky Map, where the tablet fails to show the right part of the sky and it's response to being moved around is very coarse, in comparison to a nexus 4 phone.

For astro use it is a neat little white panel for camera lenses, and static star charts are very useful. The other main use is SGL :-)

which brings me to my question: android has a bar along the bottom of the screen with home and app switching buttons. Home is next to the spacebar, so it's easy to press the wrong thing. Also, the bar uses up precious vertical real estate on my small screen. So:

Is there a way to put the Android bar vertically on the left hand side of the screen in landscape mode?