> No, an increase in speed, an acceleration, requires a thrust. If the thrust > ends, the acceleration will drop to zero, i.e. the speed will be maintained > (given that there are no other influences, such as gravity). > Well, gravity is always there, weak or strong. So a LEO does have an acceleration of 9 m/s/s, but if it is in circular orbit, the speed doesn't change but the velocity vector rotates while maintaining its size. In elliptic orbits, speed decreases with altitude. In the GEO orbit, acceleration is 0.22 m/s/s. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jun 16 2001 - 05:22:47 PDT