Question

A spacecraft of mass m is first brought into an orbit around the earth. The earth (together with the spacecraft) orbits the sun in a near circular orbit with radius R (R is the mean distance between the earth and the sun; it is about 150 million km).

(a) What is the speed v0 (in m/s) of the earth in its orbit of radius R=1.5×1011 m around the sun with a mass M=1.99×1030 kg? Take the gravitational constant G=6.674×10−11 m3kg−1s−2.

Answer 1

problem#8.3 from assignment#8-MIT