Orbit of a satellite Calculator
Calculates the orbital radius and period, and flight velocity from the orbital altitude. | ||
- Purpose of use
- Trying to settle in my mind a principle of orbital mechanics
- Comment/Request
- It is widely said that the orbit of a satellite is independent of the satellite's mass. But that raises a question in my mind, if the satellite's mass is comparable to what it is orbiting. I've read that the standard statement that the mass doesn't matter is based on a simplifying assumption that the mass of the satellite is small, compared to what it is orbiting, and that in that case, the difference is so tiny as to be insignificant. So I tried it for a satellite at the distance of the Moon. The results had the satellite having a period slightly longer than the moon (as I expected), but so little that I'm not sure it's not a question of the figures I used.
[1] 2023/01/05 01:04 60 years old level or over / An office worker / A public employee / A little /
- Purpose of use
- To determine the altitude and velocity of a satellite that takes 48 hours to circle the Earth. It will produce only one track on the Earth.
[2] 2022/12/28 12:23 60 years old level or over / A retired person / Very /
- Purpose of use
- Need to find orbital informaiton for designing exam questions...time saver.
[3] 2022/12/03 03:13 50 years old level / A teacher / A researcher / Very /
- Purpose of use
- to help me in my science exam
- Comment/Request
- this site is verry useful
[4] 2022/10/25 02:57 Under 20 years old / Elementary school/ Junior high-school student / Very /
- Purpose of use
- Interpreting velocity and altitude of Japanese sarelight launch
[5] 2022/10/12 10:01 60 years old level or over / A teacher / A researcher / Very /
- Purpose of use
- To calculate quickly for a report I am writing and where I just found I need to include this obit data, without first having to write a program to get this information. Very convenient. Thanks.
[6] 2022/10/04 12:26 60 years old level or over / A teacher / A researcher / Useful /
- Comment/Request
- Would appreciate if orbital height wasn't the only variable one could use to solve.
Being able to calculate the orbital height, radius, and velocity from an orbital period for example.
[7] 2022/07/28 01:07 20 years old level / A teacher / A researcher / A little /
- Purpose of use
- Watching a campy old movie titled 'Starflight' from 1983 where a supersonic airliner accidentally gets thrown into an 87-mile-high orbit around the earth. 7.822 Km/sec and one hour twenty-seven minutes orbital period. Oh no!
[8] 2022/06/11 11:45 60 years old level or over / A retired person / Very /
- Purpose of use
- To further understand orbital period of LEOs and Cubesats. The lower the satellite orbit, the shorter the time to communicate with the bird.
[9] 2022/05/19 09:32 60 years old level or over / An engineer / Useful /
- Purpose of use
- Check my calculation on a past exam question
- Comment/Request
- maybe there can be a calculator for elliptic or parabolic(escape v) calculator too
[10] 2022/05/10 16:12 20 years old level / High-school/ University/ Grad student / Useful /
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