Do Satellites Move Faster Than The Earth

Counterintuitively a satellite closer in from geostationary orbit must travel faster than the earth s surface in order to stay aloft to keep missing the earth as the lower altitude causes it to fall faster toward it by the inverse square law.

Do satellites move faster than the earth.

After 6 months on the international space station iss orbiting earth at a speed of about 7 700 m s an astronaut would have aged about 0 005 seconds less than those on earth. Satellites move faster than the earth. Furthermore faster orbits e g. This slows down gps satellite clocks by a small fraction of a second similar to the airplane example above.

Your spacecraft will leave. At this altitude the speed of a satellite s rotation around the world is identical to the. At the zenith they move 1 4 and 0 4 degrees per second respectively and drop a factor of 10 in rate or more as they approach the horizon. The orbital velocity of the satellite depends on its altitude above earth.

At an altitude of 124 miles 200 kilometers the required orbital velocity is a little more than 17 000 mph about 27 400 kph. Geostationary satellites do this by orbiting the earth at approximately 22 300 miles above the equator. The nearer to earth the faster the required orbital velocity. Gps satellites orbit around earth very quickly at about 8 700 miles 14 000 kilometers per hour.

Your spacecraft will travel away from the earth and be slowed by gravity but the gravitational pull of the earth drops so rapidly that it will never stop you entirely. With current technology severely limiting the velocity of space travel however the differences experienced in practice are minuscule. Gps satellites orbit around earth at about 8 700 miles 14 000 kilometers per hour. A satellite orbiting closer to the earth requires more velocity to resist the stronger gravitational pull.

A satellite maintains its orbit by balancing two factors. Surveyor type satellites move much faster as they circle the globe in about 90 minutes or so. Orbiting twice a day instead of the once of a geostationary satellite mean lower passes.