I kind of understand that it’s like falling but falling past Earth but not really. Does it require power (in the case of artificial satellites, obviously the moon doesn’t have power) or does orbit last basically forever. If two things in orbit collide will they fall? If Deimos and Phobos somehow crash into each other will they just fall to Mars?
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Imagine standing on the top of a skyscraper, if You walk off its edge, You’re gonna fall, no surprize. Now if You measure from the bottom of the skyscraper to the point at which You landed, it’s a certain distance away from the bottom of the skyscraper since You maintained the walking speed through the fall. Now if You were to run off of the top edge of the skyscraper, You’d fall again, but land further away from the skyscraper, again, since You maintained the speed at which You left the skyscraper. If You were to run off of the top edge of that skyscraper fast enough, You’d not land at all, but You’d keep falling. The curvature of the earth would curve away from You all the while You’re falling, this would go on sand on and on if it wasn’t for atmospheric drag slowing You down.
Orbit is functionally a perpetual freefall.
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