AST221H1 Lecture 4: 09_13_2019
13 Sep 2019
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Discussion: an astronaut is left by the space station orbiting around the earth in a circular orbit. She has a full oxygen tank and a little bit of propulsion left. If she fires away from the earth , she will move closer to it, increasing her orbital energy. This will increase her semi major axis, which means she will catch up but she will be at a different orbit and might not intersect the space station. If she fires towards the earth , she will accelerate away from the earth and might escape the orbit all together and even if she doesn"t she changes her orbit and doesn"t intersect the station. If she fires backwards, she will momentarily increase her velocity, will increase the orbital energy, increasing the semi major axis. With this, her period will increase (given by kepler"s 3rd law), and when she returns to her initial point she will be even further from the station.
