In 2000, NASA placed a satellite in orbit around an asteroid. Consider a spherical asteroid with a mass of 1.00×1016 and a radius of 8.50km .
What is the speed of a satellite orbiting 4.70km above the surface?
What is the escape speed from the asteroid?
2 answers
Can i get the weight of the satellite?
You don't need the weight or mass of the satellite. Use Kepler's Third Law in Newton's form (with the asteroid mass M, and G). The distance R from the center of the asteroid is 13.2 km. That is what you will need in the formula.
There is a standard formula for escape speed in terms of G and M, and asteroid radius R'. I believe it is
GM/R = (1/2)V^2
V = sqrt(2GM/R')
There is a standard formula for escape speed in terms of G and M, and asteroid radius R'. I believe it is
GM/R = (1/2)V^2
V = sqrt(2GM/R')
1 answer