JRS: In article , seen in
news:sci.space.tech, Arie Kazachin
6.net posted at Thu, 10 Jul 2003 23:46:35 :-

I wonder if it'll be possible for such a micro-sat to enter an orbit around
the orbiter? Will the air drag (and solar wind drag) be larger than the
attraction of the microsat to the shuttle? Assuming 100t shuttle and microsat
at 100m from it, the gravitationsl acceleration is about 6.6E-10 m/Sec^2
(unless I miscalculated something).


Since the Orbiter is always well within the Roche Limit, which would be
at an altitude of 1.45 Earth radii if the Orbiter had the same density
as the Earth, which it does not, we know that tide alone will prevent
orbiting.

URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/gravity3.htm

Ignoring that : Moreover, the period of an orbit is two hours if the
average density spherically within it is that of the Moon, being about 4
gm/cc. The density in question, 100t in 100m radius, is 100E6 / 1.33 pi
(1E4)^3 which is about 2E-5 gm/cc, less by a factor of about 200000; so
the period would be of the order of 900 hours (proportional to inverse
square root of density; gravity2.htm). The Orbiter stays up for of the
order of 350 hours.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v4.00 MIME. ©
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
some Astro stuff via astro.htm, gravity0.htm; quotes.htm; pascal.htm; &c, &c.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News.