A 3500-kg spaceship is in a circular orbit 220 km above the surface of Earth. It needs to be moved into a higher circular orbit of 390 km to link up with the space station at that altitude. In this problem you can take the mass of the Earth to be 5.97 × 1024 kg. How much work, in joules, do the spaceship’s engines have to perform to move to the higher orbit? Ignore any change of mass due to fuel consumption.
Gravitational force
In nature, every object is attracted by every other object. This phenomenon is called gravity. The force associated with gravity is called gravitational force. The gravitational force is the weakest force that exists in nature. The gravitational force is always attractive.
Acceleration Due to Gravity
In fundamental physics, gravity or gravitational force is the universal attractive force acting between all the matters that exist or exhibit. It is the weakest known force. Therefore no internal changes in an object occurs due to this force. On the other hand, it has control over the trajectories of bodies in the solar system and in the universe due to its vast scope and universal action. The free fall of objects on Earth and the motions of celestial bodies, according to Newton, are both determined by the same force. It was Newton who put forward that the moon is held by a strong attractive force exerted by the Earth which makes it revolve in a straight line. He was sure that this force is similar to the downward force which Earth exerts on all the objects on it.
A 3500-kg spaceship is in a circular orbit 220 km above the surface of Earth. It needs to be moved into a higher circular orbit of 390 km to link up with the space station at that altitude. In this problem you can take the mass of the Earth to be 5.97 × 1024 kg.
How much work, in joules, do the spaceship’s engines have to perform to move to the higher orbit? Ignore any change of mass due to fuel consumption.
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