Question

On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. If John Glenn weighed 640 N on Earth’s surface, a) how much would he have weighed if his Mercury spacecraft had (hypothetically) remained at twice the distance from the center of Earth? b) Why is it said that an astronaut is never truly “weightless?”

Answer 1

since F is proportional to 1/r^2,
twice the radius is 1/4 the force

not zero force