Does the speed of a satellite in orbit depend on its mass?

Answer 1

Actually, it doesn't! Unless you start talking about huge masses such as moons or other planetary objects when they start exhibiting comparable gravitational pulls. If you look at the equation for centripetal force, you'll notice that the acceleration does not depend on the mass of the object in orbit. As long as acceleration is equal to the planet's gravitational acceleration, the mass will orbit. Since this acceleration of the satellite does not depend on its mass, its orbital velocity does not depend on its mass.

Answer 2

Orbital Velocity Of Satellite

Answer 3

The classic text book answer is NO - the famous experiment where a cannon ball and a small ball were dropped off the leaning tower of pizza, showed that both hit the ground at the same time - if mass or weight had anything to do with it, then the speeds would change equal to the difference in mass, or 7 times. The actual answer is YES - turn the situation upside down. Since gravity affects things based on the amount of mass, then the small ball would pull the earth down 1/7th of the force of the larger cannon ball. However, since the earth is such a large object, billions of times heavier than either object, the difference is almost undetectable on common land based experiments, In space, where there is no atmosphere, the situation is different, and tiny changes in mass will affect the " FALLING " of the object as it falls around the earth. To compensate you either have to move the object to a higher or lower orbit, or increase or decrease the speed to maintain a stable orbit ( path of falling to earth )

Answer 4

no.the mass of the satellite does not effect the orbital velocity.

the earths gravitational force provides centripetal force for the satellite to revolve around the around th earth (the same way the nucleus centripetal force causes the electrons to revolve around it).the centripetal force experienced by the satellite is given by the formula (mv^2)/r.here r is the distance between satellite and the center of the earth,v the velocity of satellite and m the mass of satellite.so naturally higher the mass higher the centripetal force so naturally higher the velocity.
but this is not the case.the increase in mass nullifies the increase in velocity(for example if a car engine has high capacity then the cars speed will be high.however if the mass of the car is large then the increase in speed due to high engine capacity will be canceled due to increase in mass).this same principle governs the velocity of satellite.
however the altitude of the satellite affects the velocity of the velocity of the satellite to a great extent.
at higher altitude the atmosphere is thin.hence the satellite experiences less frictional force.however at lower altitude the the earths atmosphere becomes thick and the satellites path becomes disrupted due to frictional force.hence its velocity decreases causing an imbalance in the satellites inertia and earths gravitational force .hence the satellite is pulled towards the earth and the earths atmosphere burns it up

Answer 5

In a simplified view, an object is in orbit if the centrifugal force is equal to the gravitational force. Centifugal force is

fc = mv^2/r, where v is the orbital velocity and r the distance from earth center.

Gravitiational force = mG'/r^2, where G' is earth mass times the newtonian gravitational constant.

When these are equated, mv^2/r = mG'/r^2, the mass cancels out, giving v = sqrt(G'/r)

Answer 6

The velocity of a satellite in orbit can be obtained from this equation -- v = square root(mass/distance)

From this you can see that mass is definitely a critical factor.

Answer 7

No. It does depend on how high above the planet the orbit is. The minimum velocity to achieve orbit is equal to the escape velocity divided by square root of 2; for earth, 17,500 mph and 25,000 mph approximately.

Answer 8

no, all objects will orbit at the same speed no matter the mass

Answer 9

Yes, a heavier object either needs to move faster or be further from earth to stay in orbit.

Answer 10

it does not depend on its mass
Fnet = (Msat * v2) / R
then,this net force results to gravitation force
Fgrav = (G* Msat * MCentral ) / R2
since Fnet=Fgrav
(Msat * v2) / R = (G* Msat * MCentral ) / R2
it follows that v2=(G*MCentral ) / R where v is its velocity