All Questions
5 questions
10votes
2answers
2kviews
What's the motion of two connected satellites orbiting the Earth after their separation?
Let's consider the following problem (it's a job interview question): two satellites are orbiting the Earth in a circular orbit; they are rigidly linked by a tether which is always pointing in the ...
- 433
1vote
2answers
261views
How to correct my real orbit and turn it into predicted ideal orbit?
I want to launch my ship to the purple ellipse orbit. But because of non-ideal world I have non-ideal ship orientation and non-ideal thrust impulse. So, my initial speed is a bit bigger and it's ...
- 604
2votes
1answer
174views
Knowing when to stop burning
Navigating in orbit usually relies on firing engines for some amount of time to achieve a specific velocity. This answer, for example, mentions "closed-loop guidance" for the ISS boosting. ...
- 365
13votes
3answers
558views
A spacecraft is travelling at X units per hour. But relative to what exactly? Does it depend on the orbit? How?
If I am walking, the ground is stationary, and I move $X \frac{\text{units}}{\text{hour}}$ relative to the ground. If I am in low-Earth orbit, then I am still moving $X \frac{\text{units}}{\text{hour}}...
- 1,006
4votes
1answer
379views
At what point of travelling progressively faster around the Earth you are not going to fall back again?
My dad and I thought about a problem we had when discussing Earth's gravitational field. This wasn't the original question but I still would like to know the answer. So essentially my question is: Is ...
