Earth’s Satellite
Earth satellites are objects which revolve around the earth. Their motion is very similar to the motion of planets around the Sun. In particular, their orbits around the earth are circular or elliptic. Moon is the only natural satellite of the earth with a near circular orbit with a time period of approximately 27.3 days which is also roughly equal to the rotational period of the moon about its own axis. Also, the speed that a satellite needs to be travelling to break free of a planet or moon’s gravity well and leave it without further propulsion is known as escape velocity. For example, a spacecraft leaving the surface of earth needs to be going 7 miles per second or nearly 25000 miles per hour to leave without falling back to the surface or falling into orbit.
The orbital velocity of an artificial satellite in a circular orbit just above the earth’s surface is `v_o`. The orbital velocity of a satellite orbiting at an altitude of half of the radius, is
Options:
(a) `3/2v_o`
(b) `2/3v_o`
(c) `sqrt(3/2)v_o`
(d) `sqrt(2/3)v_o`