Thread: centripital and centrifugal -Satellite

Can any one explain me about centripetal and centrifugal forces . ?

Is any of these forces naturally help the artificial satellites placed in orbit ?

And also what is the nature of curvature of satellite movement (path).


Reason :
Had heard a joke related to this.

Two toughest jobs for human is ,

Pusher and loader .

Pusher - In the middle of the sea , when ever ship's engine stops working and ship halts ,
then PUSHER is supposed get out of the ship and give a PUSH to make the ship engine start again !


Loader - In the space , whenever satellite goes out of fuel by traveling for long time , You will be send above along with the fuel to load it to the FUEL TANKER OF THE SATELLITE !!!


I heard that fuel is used in / for satellite in real , but what purpose is it used ?

Fuel is used to make orbital corrections. If space were a perfect vacuum, and the Earth was perfectly symetrical, and the Earth and satellite were alone in the universe, then if you put a satellite into a given orbit, it would stay ther forever. However none of these things is true. There is always going to be some slight drag on the satellite, the Earth is "lumpy" and there are other bodies with gravity that effect the satellite gravitationally. All these factors will cause a sattelite to drift away from its orignal orbit. In some cases, like that of GPS satellites, it is very important that the satellites keep to a very precise orbit. In these cases, the satellite carries fuel so that it can make periodic course corrections.

GPS satellites, are not re-fueled. They are designed to last a given number of years and then are replaced. They are given enough fuel to last out this lifetime plus what is needed for a controlled re-entry.

Centripetal force on a satellite is the force of gravity which keeps the satellite from going off on a tangent. Centrifugal "force" is the inertia which would make it go off on a tangent.