Describe how an object is put into orbit, such as in an orbit around the Earth?

Question

I have been unable to find this in my textbooks and am looking for help

Answer 1

To be in orbit, an object must travel fast enough around the Earth so that it compensates for gravity's pull. Essentially, when it falls one meter, the ground is one meter lower due to Earth's curvature. It "falls around" the Earth. For low orbit, which is where the shuttle goes, that speed is around 7600 m/s or about 17,000 mph. The friction of Earth's atmosphere would obviously be detrimental in trying to reach that speed, so getting into orbit means getting outside the atmosphere (or at least to a height where it's almost nonexistant) and accelerating to orbital speed. The space shuttle does this in about 8 and a half minutes.

Answer 2

Specific answer: the particle is accelerated to about 17,000 miles per hour, on a course parallel to the surface of the Earth. when it reaches equilibrium, it will be in orbit.
The concept of orbiting is to be constantly falling off of the Earth. Since the Earth is always pulling you down, if you are falling too slowly and moving too fast, then all that happen is that your orbit diameter gets bigger - you move away from the Earth, and are still falling toward it from a higher altitude.
If the gravity is pulling you faster than are you moving forward, then your orbit gets lower.
To get the concept, imagine the Earth were its same mass and gravitational constant, only about ten miles across. The orbiting particle would still behave the same way, but its opportunity to orbit would continue even if its orbit diameter was fifteen miles across. That is what happens to spacecraft during re-entry. Before reentry vehicles had wings to keep them afloat, their retro-rockets would slow them down so that their true, equilibrium orbit's diameter becomes smaller than is the Earth's surface, so they have to land. Parachutes helped but that's how the system works.

Answer 3

After the rocket carrying a payload lifts off, it start pitching over, usually towards the east to take advantage of the Earth's west to east rotation. If the rocket has any solid rocket boosters around the central core or first stage, they are jetiisioned and fall fack to the ocean. As it climbs higher it's flight path gets more and more parallel with the Earth's surface. By the time the first stage exhausts it's fuel, it will be flying at a speed around 8,000 mph or more at an altitude of 50 miles or more. Explosive bolts fire and the first stage falls away into the ocean as the second stage engine revs up. At this time, the protective fairing around the spacecraft is un-necessary weight because it's no longer needed to protect the payload from damage due to heating or areodynamic forces. Thus it is typically jetissioned at or shortly after the first stage is released. The second stage will fire it's engine until either it's fuel is exhausted or until a stable parking orbit about the Earth is acheived. At that point the second stage shuts down. As it accelerates the payload to orbital velocity, it follows a flight path parallel or nearly so to the surface of the Earth to gain the sideways velocity needed to enter orbit or escape from the Earth. If the velocity is not at least 17,500 mph, it will fall back into the atmosphere and burn up, leaving the payload or an upper stage to acheive orbit. If it's higher than that it will carry the payload into orbit. What happens next depends upon the rocket, it's payload and what mission it is to carry out. A satellite that operates in low Earth orbit would simply be released from the second or upper-stage, and it will be abandoned in orbit after the fuel tanks are vented to space and the batteries ran down. This is done to eliminate any chance of the spent rocket stage exploding later. If rocket stages and boosters blow apart up there, they create a potentially deadly debris hazard for astronauts or future spacecraft and satellites. If the spacecraft has to reach a higher orbit or needs to escape from the Earth, the second stage either will shut down and be jettissioned and the third stage is ignited, or it coasts along in a low-Earth orbit until it fires again at the right time. Sometimes a rocket uses a "direct ascent" trajectory to get the payload to it's intended destination, namely each stage fires in turn until the final stage burns out, then releases the spacecraft. Then the upper stage if present takes over. When the second or upper-stage shuts down, the spacecraft will be travelling at anywhere from 18,000 to 36,000mph relative to Earth. When the spacecraft is on it's way to it's final destination, the upper stage releases the spacecraft and manuvers away, and is abandoned in either Earth or Solar orbit. If it is a liquid fueled rocket, the fuel tanks again are vented to space and the batteries drained after it manuvers away from the spacecraft. If it's a solid fueled booster, it's simply released. Then the spacecraft deploys it's booms, solar panels, antennas and instruments and reports it's health back to controllers on Earth. After a check-out of all the onboard systems, the spacecraft is declared operational or placed in a kind of stasis for it's interplanetary journey to another planet, comet or asteroid.

Answer 4

First you have to lift it above the atmosphere, then you have to get it going fast enough sideways to stay in orbit. For low Earth orbit, that speed is 17,500 Miles per hour. So you put the satellite on top of a big rocket and shoot it up about 100 miles, then turn the rocket sideways and accelerate up to 17,500 miles per hour. It is that acceleration sideways that takes most of the power, not lifting it out of the atmosphere. You have to get out of the atmosphere because at 17,500 miles per hour, air drag in the atmosphere would immediately slow it down to something like a few hundred miles per hour. And in real life, they don't go straight up. They start straight up but immediately start to curve over gradually so that after the first 2 minutes or so they are high enough and going sideways, then 5 or 10 minutes more of rocket power is needed to get up to orbital speed. After that the rocket is out of fuel, the satellite is released and it just coasts without power in the frictionless vacuum of space for years and years.

Answer 5

with rocket fuel and alot of it.