Steve Adams wrote: > Another interest is that, at the distance above the equator they are, they > must be travelling at phenomenal speeds to achieve geostationary and even > greater for geosynchronous orbits, (when compared to surface and air travel > speed records). Actually, an object in orbit at approx 22,000 mile radius is traveling 44,000 (dia) x 3.14 = 138,160 miles per day / 24 hours = 5757 miles per hour (approx) Rather leisurely compared to a LEO object that travels approx 18,000 miles per hour. Leo object at 9000 mile dia orbit every 1.5 hours 9000 x 3.14 = 28260 miles per orbit 24 hours / 1.5 hours per orbit = 16 orbits per day or 28260 x 16 = 452160 miles per day / 24 hour = 18840 miles per hour Purists please note that I am aware that these figures are approximate, I am trying to make the point simply. Steve Adams wrote: > Am I also right in thinking that an object in space that is accelerating > following a thrust but without further thrusts, will continue to increase > it's speed, (indefinitely), until controlled by reverse thrusts, hitting > another object or encountering a strong gravitational field? An object that is accelerated into space by a thrust force will stop accelerating as soon as the thrust stops and will continue traveling in a straight line at a constant speed if no other forces are applied. However, in our neck of the galaxy, an object traveling through space is under constantly varying forces from the Sun, the planets, the solar wind, and a multitude of other factors so a straight line is not likely for long. -- Tom Troszak, Asheville, NC, USA 35.601 N, -82.554 W mailto:tom@tomtroszak.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 15 2001 - 08:49:41 PDT