Mission control wishes to place a satellite in circular orbit above the earth.
Calculate the orbital height of a geostationary satellite.
B calculate the height at which the satellite orbits above the surface of the earth.
The height of the geostationary orbit is 35786 kilometers above earth in geostationary orbit the satellite moves with an orbital speed of 11068 km per hours.
A geostationary orbit also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit geo is a circular geosynchronous orbit 35 786 kilometres 22 236 miles above earth s equator and following the direction of earth s rotation.
We can calculate the height h above the earth s surface by subtracting the radius of the earth from the radius of the orbit.
A a geostationary orbit is when the satellite remains vertically above the same point on the equator at all all times and consequently has an orbital period of 24 hours.
An object in such an orbit has an orbital period equal to the earth s rotational period one sidereal day and so to ground observers it appears motionless in a fixed.
Because the radius and period are related you can use physics to calculate one if you know the other.
When a satellite travels in a geosynchronous orbit around the earth it needs to travel at a certain orbiting radius and period to maintain this orbit.
R g m2 t 4π we know that m2 is the mass of the earth at 5 98 10 24 kg t is the time period and g the universal gravitation constant at 6 67 x10 11 kg 2.
The radius of the earth is 6400km and its mass is 6x10 24 kg.
Image satellites in geostationary orbit by lookang many thanks to author of original simulation francisco esquembre author of easy java simulation francisco esquembre.
A minimum of three satellites are needed to cover the entire earth super synchronous orbit is a disposal storage orbit above gso.
The satellite must have a period.
From earth they would seem drifting in westerly direction.
H is the altitude height of the object.
H 4 22 10 7 6 37 10 6 3 583 10 7 m.
P is the orbital period.
Through the use of re arranging the above equation we can come to the equation.
An object s orbital altitude can be computed from its orbital period and the mass of the body it orbits using the following formula.
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To calculate the radius of a geostationary orbit the centripetal force must equal the gravitational force on the satellite or mass.
From the relationship f centripetal f centrifugal we note that the mass of the satellite m s appears on both sides geostationary orbit is independent of the mass of the satellite.
G is the gravitational constant.
