Orbital Mechanics
The cluster centers on discussions and corrections about how orbits work, including orbital velocity, trajectories, stability, atmospheric drag, and gravitational effects around Earth and other bodies.
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Orbital velocity but not orbital trajectory.
why not push it out of orbit, away from earth?
Wouldn’t any constant force tend to ellipticize the orbit and lead to a return to earth?
my rocket seems to want to only orbit the earth b/c it doesn't know what else there is.
Should be in retrograde orbit to work better in that orbital plane.
That's how you get orbits.
Things you put in orbit at a certain elevation don't stay at that elevation forever.
Why wouldn't they follow a Keplerian orbit?
I'm not sure that it would. The Earth isn't perfectly spherical so the gravitational field will be different at different times in the orbit. Then because it is orbiting you'll also have to deal with tidal forces (bits slightly closer to the Earth will want to move slightly faster), not to mention possible acceleration from solar radiation or small amounts of atmospheric drag.
It would change the Moon orbit too :)