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Title: Is the momentum of a satellite in a circular orbit conserved? Post by: rl127 on Oct 3, 2012 Is the momentum of a satellite in a circular orbit conserved? How about the KE?
Title: Is the momentum of a satellite in a circular orbit conserved? Post by: MicroMan84 on Oct 3, 2012 Disregarding friction losses, the linear and angular momentum and KE are conserved. In an elliptic orbit, KE trades off with gravitational PE.
Title: Is the momentum of a satellite in a circular orbit conserved? Post by: rlaehgns on Oct 4, 2012 In classic physics:
This depends on fuel consumption: If not: There isn't even any momentum on a satellite in circular orbit, because there is no netto force if it is in circular orbit (gravity of earth is equal to the centripical force) so no matter what distance it travels, if Fnetto is 0 then the momentum is 0. And yes, the energy is conserved because there is no fuel needing to keep it in its orbit. If so: The momentum is not conserved because the satellite needs to create force to keep its orbit. And energy is also not conserved because the satllite turns internal chemical energy into external propellation force. Usually the first case scenario of the situation is used to illustrate the fact that there is no momentum is no force is applied. |