Roger wrote: Items in orbit travel at a speed that is partly determined > by the height of the orbit. I believe atmospheric drag and gravity play > roles in determining the speed. (hmm, rethinking the gravity part). Let me have a stab at this. Maybe a better way would be to say that objects in orbit travel at whatever velocity they are traveling when they enter the orbit (in this case launch velocity), and if drag is not a factor the diameter and shape of the orbit varies with the initial velocity and direction of the orbiting object. If the momentum of the object in the direction of travel is impeded by atmospheric drag, the the object begins to accelerate more toward the earth and the orbit becomes a shallow spiral inward with continuous acceleration toward the planet as the acceleration due to gravity increases (as the distance between the objects decreases). -- Tom Troszak, Asheville, NC, USA 35.601 N, -82.554 W mailto:tom@bullhammer.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 : Thu Aug 16 2001 - 11:13:33 PDT