送交者: cornbug 于 2005-5-04, 19:43:57:
回答: no, only centripetal force acts on satellites. 由 steven 于 2005-5-04, 19:16:18:
I always think this in terms of the equillibrium of all forces, as learned from the high school physics. The satellite is always orbiting in a elliptical trajectory anyway and yet the balance of all forces are achieved all the time. How? sorry, I may have asked for more but this confuses me a lot from time to time.
When you say the ecentricity is btw 0 and 1, what is 1 meant here?
When you say that because of the drag force, the satellite falls down to a lower orbit, you mean the microgravity pulls the satellite down as a result of the reduced tangential velocity of the satellite, so the centripetal force (here I assume it is the counter part of gravity)?