If a satellite is brought into a stable orbit around another body, it should keep orbiting, right?
In: Physics
Sure. If you are asking about perfect “high school physics” examples.
In reality no such drag-less 2-body system exists.
Energy is lost to tidal effects, drag and collisions with small objects. Orbits are distorted by other bodies exerting influence on the 2-body system.
If you try to extract energy from this “perpetual motion machine”, you will further degrade its orbit.
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