> Orbital Mechanics questions: > If you are traveling in the space Shuttle in space, and you want to > increase your altitude, do you increase or decrease your speed? > > Does this change when you are stationary in orbit vs orbiting? > > Nerd From Hell > > Decrease. I'm not sure what you mean by stationary in orbit.
Well, that is only sorta true, Gautam. In order to increase your height, you accelerate along the direction you are traveling, thus increasing your speed. If you started out in a circular orbit, the result would be an elliptical orbit. At its apogee, the speed will be lower than it was in the original orbit. At its perigee, it it will be higher. Now, if you then do another burn half an orbit later, you can have a new circular orbit at a greater distance above the earth (or the moon or the sun or etc.). The velocity in this orbit will be lower than the velocity in the original orbit. Well, my last physics course was more than 20 years ago, but I'm fairly sure I'm right too. :-) Finally, I'm guessing Chad was thinking about a geosyncronous orbit. That really has nothing to do with the problem. Dan M. OK, I thought he was just asking what the difference in velocities was. Obviously if you are currently in an orbit and just decelerate you begin to, well, fall. This could cause all sorts of problems... Gautam
