If a satellite is brought into a stable orbit around another body, it should keep orbiting, right?
In: Physics
Okay, so I now understand that 2-body systems do no work so we can’t extract any usable work from them without affecting the orbit. Flywheel analogy really helped.
The follow up question I have is would two point masses orbiting around a common center of mass have their orbits decay (this is empty space with no other objects affecting the orbits). This is because most replies state that effects like tidal forces and drag from other particles will cause orbits to decay.
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