In: Physics
What role does the satellite's mass play in calculating orbital velocity?
Let the mass of satellite be "m" and that of planet around which it revolves is "M". Let the radius of orbit is R then if the orbital velocity is "v" then centripetal force acting on satellite will be
.......................(1)
Also the force of gravitational attraction between planet and satellite is
...........................(2)
At equilibrium above both forces are equal, thus equating equation 1 and 2,
Above is the orbital velocity which we can see that doesn't depends on satellite's mass.