Why does astronaut feel weightless in the space?

Question

I know that there is freefall, which the gravity is constantly pulling the astronauts down. But how come they dont actually fall in?

On Earth, if you jump off froma plane, you can fell weightless, but you are actually falling down and you will die if you don't land properly.
How come the situation is different from the situation in space?

And how come the satalite can move faster than earth's rotation, if you say it is just keep falling toward the Earth?

(Tell me if you don't get what I am saying)

For space, I mean place "near" the earth but above the atmosphere.

Answer 1

Ok - try to imagine this.

If you jump out of a hot-air balloon, you hit the ground directly beneath the balloon.

If you jump out of a jet plane, you will hit the ground some considerable distance away, and your trajectory will form a curve, shallow at the top and then steepening as you lose velocity relative to the ground.

Now imagine jumping out of a jet plane going very high and *very* fast. This time you carry on for a very long distance indeed, in a shallow curve. You fall, but as you do so the ground is falling away beneath you, because of the curve of the earth. What happens is that you *miss the ground*! You end up skimming close to the surface of the earth and going up again as your momentum carries you onward. Then you fall back and miss the earth again. In fact you are in a highly parabolic orbit.

Of course, you would have to be going so fast you would burn up in the atmosphere, but you get the idea, I hope. In practice, spacecraft are at a height where the atmosphere doesn't really impact them at all, and their orbits are closer to a circle.

I am sure someone will come along and explain it much better than me!

Answer 2

As Lodar says When an object such as the shuttle is in orbit, it is in free fall. There is gravity pulling it towards Earth, almost as much as there is on the ground, and it is falling, but it keeps missing because it is going so fast. Everyone inside is falling at the same speed, so they appear weightless. It's nothing to do with the air, or vacuum, it's about the speed and trajectory. A plane (or for that matter a roller coaster car) can travel for a short time in a ballistic trajectory that leaves the occupants apparently weightless. But only in space, in vacuum, can a vessel go fast enough to keep doing that forever without hitting the ground.

Answer 3

There is plenty of gravity in space. Its what keeps the Moon (and everything else) in orbit. Imagine swinging a weight on the end of a string around your head. Centifugal force keeps the string tight and the string keeps the weight from flying out. Orbits are much like that. Centrigufal force pulls the body outward and gravity keeps it from flying away. Gravitational force is G * m/r^2 where r is the distance from the center of the Earth and G is a gravity constant. Cetrifugal force is m*v^2 / r. Equating the two, you can find the orbital velocity for any size orbit.

Answer 4

Gravity "In Space" ummm me thinks NOT!

Gravity is a by-product of solid objects with-In the "Space /Time Continum"

Look up all of Einsteins work and read it, when you are done look up all of Niels Bohr' work and read it! LOL

Then maybe you will have a clue ;-)

Answer 5

You had me. Then you lost me. But, I'll say it is because there is no gravity in space. The end. Good Luck ! :)

Answer 6

Pretzels is absolutely right.