Eli5: if on space Newtown law says that for every action there is an equal reaction, people moving through the ISS will eventualy make it go out of orbit?

Question

They are moving themselves by pulling on the rods, won’t that make the ISS move very little, but after a ton of movement and a ton of time, won’t it move closer or farther from the orbit and collide with earth or drift through space?

In: Physics

Answer 1

Imagine you pull on those rods to drag yourself to another area of the ISS. What will happen when you get there? You’re not going to continue floating in the same direction forever. Eventually, you hit a wall, and in that collision the same rules apply. The wall pushes you back, stopping you,, but you push the wall in the opposite direction, giving the ISS a very small shove in the opposite direction of the one you gave it when you started. So in the end, the whole thing cancels out.