Sage-Tips

What are the two factors that keep the satellite in orbit around Earth?

Newton concluded that two factors—inertia and gravity– combine to keep Earth in orbit around the sun, and the moon in orbit around Earth.

What are the necessary conditions to put a satellite into an orbit around the Earth?

The conditions for satellite to appear stationary are: (i) The time-period should be 24 hours. (ii) Its orbit should be in the equatorial plane of the earth. (iii) Its direction of motion should be the same as that of the earth about its polar axis.

What factors affect orbits?

There are two forces that keep the planets in their orbits.

• Gravity. Gravity is the primary force that controls the orbit of the planets around the sun.
• Inertia.
• Gravity Working with Inertia.
• Velocity and Gravity.

What force keeps a satellite in orbit?

gravity
Even when satellites are thousands of miles away, Earth’s gravity still tugs on them. Gravity—combined with the satellite’s momentum from its launch into space—cause the satellite to go into orbit above Earth, instead of falling back down to the ground.

What two factors keep all satellites in orbit name each factor and describe its effect on the satellite?

So really, a satellites ability to maintain its orbit comes down to a balance between two factors: its velocity (or the speed at which it would travel in a straight line), and the gravitational pull between the satellite and the planet it orbits.

What are the criteria for the geostationary orbit of satellite?

Orbital stability A geostationary orbit can be achieved only at an altitude very close to 35,786 kilometres (22,236 miles) and directly above the equator. This equates to an orbital speed of 3.07 kilometres per second (1.91 miles per second) and an orbital period of 1,436 minutes, one sidereal day.

What are essential conditions for a satellite to be a geostationary satellite?

for a satellite to be geostationary, which of the following are essential conditions? (i) It must always be stationed above the equator. (ii) It must rotates from west to east. (iii) It must be about 36,000 km above the earth (iv) Its orbit must be circular and not elliptical.

Which factor decides the orbit of a satellite?

The factors are : the mass of the Earth, the mass of the satellite, and the distance between the center of the Earth and the center of the satellite. Also, the gravitational constant, which is involved in a set of equations that relate these factors to the orbital speed of the satellite.

What determines the speed of a planet’s orbit?

A planet’s orbital speed changes, depending on how far it is from the Sun. The closer a planet is to the Sun, the stronger the Sun’s gravitational pull on it, and the faster the planet moves. The farther it is from the Sun, the weaker the Sun’s gravitational pull, and the slower it moves in its orbit.

What determines the orbit of a planet?

In the solar system, the planets follow orbits determined *mainly* by the Sun’s gravity — since the Sun is the *most* massive object in the system (it is about 1000 times as massive as Jupiter, which is about 300 times more massive than Earth). Same for the other planets’ orbits.

What is the orbital velocity of a satellite in low Earth orbit?

The low earth orbit extends from 160km above Earth and ends at 2000km. It is not possible to achieve an orbit below 160km without artificial thrusters due to the atmospheric drag at that altitude. The mean orbital velocity of any satellite that needs to reach an LEO should be 7.5km/s (27,000km/h). This value decreases as the altitude increases.

Why do weather satellites have to be so far away from Earth?

Satellites need to be very far away from earth and above the equator to rotate in this kind of orbit. This orbit allows the GOES-R series satellites to constantly scan the earth for severe weather as it develops while also monitoring the sun.

What are the advantages of the low Earth orbit?

The low altitude of the Low earth orbit is apt for communication and imaging satellites. Due to the altitude, communication signals require less power and time to travel between the Earth stations and the satellites.

How do satellites view the daytime side of Earth?

(NASA image courtesy TRMM Project.) Many of the satellites in NASA’s Earth Observing System have a nearly polar orbit. In this highly inclined orbit, the satellite moves around the Earth from pole to pole, taking about 99 minutes to complete an orbit. During one half of the orbit, the satellite views the daytime side of the Earth.