astronauts in an orbiting spacecraft are said to be weightless?

Question

astronauts in an orbiting spacecraft are said to be weightless, but obviously there is force due to gravity on them. How do they stay in orbit and avoid falling, or are they falling?

Answer 1

They are in FREE-FALL. The moon is in free-fall around the earth too.The Moon, Earth's natural satellite, seems to hover in the sky, unaffected by gravity. However, the reason the Moon stays in orbit is precisely because of gravity -- a universal force that attracts objects. With the right combination of speed and gravity, satellites can fall around, instead of into, the body that they orbit.

Answer 2

The experience is called "weightlessness" or "zero gravity," and it occurs because the force of attraction of the earth's gravity is almost exactly balanced by centrifugal force resulting from orbital motion.

These forces act equally on the orbiting spacecraft, astronauts, and objects inside the spacecraft, so that you and your Snickers bar seem to be floating in the air without gravity.

Gravity is present, but it is equally offset by other forces.

For much more information, including pictures and diagrams, try an Internet search on "orbital forces" or "zero gravity."

Good luck!

Answer 3

They are indeed falling. However, the forward motion of the spacecraft means that the fall matches the curvature of the Earth. They fall continuously, around the Earth, and that's what an orbit is.

Shuttle and ISS orbits are so low that the force of gravity is only a few percent less than what it is on the surface.

Answer 4

They ARE falling. An orbit is one long continuous fall that just keeps missing the ground because of the high sideways speed. Basically the craft would move off at 17,500 MPH in a straight line if there were no gravity. But gravity curves that straight path down. But the surface of the round Earth curves out from under it at the same rate so the fall keeps missing the ground.

Answer 5

Actually, they're falling. Just like when you throw a rock across a yard. That rock is also, briefly, in orbit - but it's not moving fast enough to avoid a collision with the ground.

A space craft is. It's moving fast enough, and *falling* toward the Earth, but the Earth's surface is curving away as it falls - so it's continually falling toward the Earth.

If the Earth maintained it's mass, but doubled it's size, then the space craft would be just like that rock - impacting on the surface after a ballistic flight.

Answer 6

As Lodar says whilst an merchandise such because of the fact the holiday is in orbit, this is in unfastened fall. there is gravity pulling it in the direction of Earth, basically approximately as much as there is on the floor, and this is falling, even though it keeps lacking because of the fact it is going so quickly. anyone interior is falling on the comparable velocity, so as that they seem weightless. it is not something to do with the air, or vacuum, this is with regard to the cost and trajectory. A airplane (or for that count a curler coaster motor vehicle) can return and forth for a quick time in a ballistic trajectory that leaves the occupants apparently weightless. yet basically in area, in vacuum, can a vessel circulate quickly sufficient to maintain doing that usually with out hitting the floor.

Answer 7

they are constantly falling and "missing" the earth. It's jsut like being in an elevator or an airplane that is plummeting to earth. You feel weightless inside because you are no longer accelerating, but rather falling at a constant speed.

Answer 8

They are falling. They're just traveling so fast that by the time they would hit the earth, they've already moved past it; they're continually falling around the earth.

They aren't without mass, they just don't feel acceleration.

Answer 9

If they are far enough away from a large mass, then the gravitational pull on them should be very close to zero, enough for them to be "weightless".