What would happen if you held onto a rope that was attached to a satellite in outer space?

Question

Purely hypothetical and will never happen but nevertheless fun and interesting thinking:


Suppose the rope was long and strong enough to support massive amounts of weight and stretched all the way down to earth with you holding onto it several hundred meters above ground level. Would the earth's gravity pull you, the rope and the satellite down to it? Would you be floating there across the world in a day because of its rotation? What would happen if this situation were actually possible, taking into all the effects of physics?

i didn't mention anything about an asteroid or if it would hit the satellite.

Answer 1

A couple of factors were not mentioned that would have a slight impact on the answer, i.e. satellite orbit, mass of satellite.

If the satellite were one that is in geostationary orbit (maintains its place with respect to the planet) and a rope was added to it with you hanging on at some height, the satellite would be pulled down to earth, as it is moving through space at a specific distance from earth that was carefully calculated given its mass and speed to maintain its proper altitude, and by adding additional weight to its own would throw off the careful balance it had between weight, speed and distance from earth. To maintain its position relative to the earth, it would have to adjust its altitude higher to compensate for the change in mass.

If the satellite were one that is not in geostationary orbit, other factors would then have to be considered. The final affect on the satellite however, would be the same, it would eventually come crashing down to earth. If the mass of the satellite were smaller than yourself and the rope, it would be pulled down faster than one with a larger mass. As stated above, any change in the total mass applied to the satellite would cause its orbit to deteriorate from its balance point of speed, distance and mass. In any event, you would be pulled along its orbit (for varying amounts of time dependant on its mass) until it came down, and by being pulled along its orbit, you would also provide additional drag on the satellite by the wind/air resistance by you as you were being pulled through the atmosphere.

In any case you and the satellite would not survive the fall to earth from the several hundred meters up that you proposed.

Answer 2

it will depend on the mass of the satellite i think... BTW, not all satellites stay on the same spot in the sky it depends on their orbit (have you ever wathed a James Bond movie? which was it? Goldeneye?)

if it was tied to the sputnik i think it would fall right on top of your head XD

now, tie it to the Hubble (it's a sattelite isn't it) and I don't know what happens there... maybe the air hitting the rope will make it lose enough momentum until it falls down... but not inmediately of course... Get a good pair of gloves for this one.

And the Moon is a satellite too... but i wouldn't recomend hanging too tight to THAT rope... you'll either lose a couple arms or hit the next building next to you...

Also, I'm pretty sure nobody could stand the speed of "floating there across the world in a day". Remember what happened with Flash's clothes in that old movie? The guy running naked? :P

Hey I loved this question...

Answer 3

a TRUE real world satillite is calibrated to rotate around the earth as the earth spins at the same speed- thats why satillite tv is always pointed in one direction

the rope would stay stationary

however if for some reason a piece of space rock hit that satilite instead of the other hunderds of other none roped space junk then you would feel a light tug on the rope since most rocks are small

And even more unlikely- if a rock classified as the size of a astroid was to hit the satillite you would probally lose your hands as the froce of friction on your hands would create a massive fire ball melting your hands away, depending on what type of atmospher you were in you may also die due to the heat- if that doesnt kill you the astroid will be pulled almost stright down towads the ground near to where the staillite was hovering above, due the affects of gravity of course

if you were standing right under the sat. you better move or else that thing will kill you if it hits with in 100 meters of where you were standing

Answer 4

Possibly pull down the sattellite, because being closer to the Earth, the effect of gravity is greater, so even though the force is keeping the sattellite at a constant possition, you would probably be pulled closer... but also, take into consideration that you have less mass, so depending on the distance, you could weigh the same as the sattellite in which case you would not move...


As for rotation, the point of a sattellite (assuming you mean the man-made ones, and not the moon), is to stay at the exact same place on the Earth, so it would seem as if you were just hanging there.

Answer 5

confusing problem. look into with google or bing. this could actually help!

Answer 6

You might be suprised, but we might just see this kind of technology in the future. It's a concept which has been around for 30-odd years now known as the Skyhook or Space Elevator. It's litereally as you describe it. A satellite in a syncronous orbit lowers a hook or boom and lifts building materials into space. Not as far-fetched as you think.

Answer 7

If we assume the rope has no mass, and the satellite is not in a geosynchronous orbit, the rope will be jerked out of your hands at thousands of miles per hour. Nasty rope burn will ensue.

Answer 8

There is not enough information supplied to answer this question properly.