eli5 how are satellites placed in just the right spot so they dont fall to earth or drift into space?
In: Planetary Science
At any altitude there’s one specific speed that will put you in a *circular* orbit – just fast enough to fall around the Earth at the same altitude all the time. But other speeds also produce orbits. Go a little slower and your sideways path will approach Earth, and will also speed up because you’re falling “down”. By the time you’ve reached the opposite side of the orbit you’ll be going so fast that you start to climb again, and eventually you end up at the initial position and speed, completing an *elliptical* orbit. Similarly, if you’re a bit too fast, you’ll climb for the first part of the orbit and descend for the second part, making a larger ellipse.
So you only need the precise correct speed and direction if you want your orbit to be a perfect circle. But there’s a wide range of speeds that allow an orbit that’s not circular.
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