Mathematica MathWorld Wolfram Science More »

Orbital Speed and Period of a Satellite


	Kepler's third law relates the period and the radius of objects in orbit around a star or planet. In conjunction with Newton's law of universal gravitation, giving the attractive force between two masses, we can find the speed and period of an artificial satellite in orbit around the Earth. Consideration is limited to circular orbits.


	Contributed by: Enrique Zeleny

The speed of a satellite is given by

and the period is

where

is the distance from the center of the Earth (Earth's radius + altitude

is the gravitational constant, and

is the mass of the Earth.

Contributed by: Enrique Zeleny

	Source page:
	Email	Name (optional)
	Occupation (optional)	Organization (optional)
	I use Mathematica often occasionally never
	Country (optional) Remember me
	Note: Please do not include anything you consider confidential or proprietary. Your message and contact information may be shared with the author of any specific Demonstration for which you give feedback, but will not otherwise be published or distributed. Privacy Policy »

RSS

Atom