In the blockbuster hit Gravity, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are in a shuttle that is going through a debris field every 90 mins. The only way this could happen is if some of the debris was moving in the same orbit as the shuttle but in the opposite direction, as schematically shown in the figure to the right. Assume the orbits are perfectly circular for simplicity, and use the fact that the mass and radius of the earth are = 5.973 X 10^24 kg and R = 6.370 X 10^3 km, respectively. (a) What is the altitude of the orbit of the two pseudo-astronauts? (b) What speed are George and Sandra moving at? (c) Say Sandra?s mass (with spacesuit and all) is 85 kg. What is her total energy in this orbit?
In the blockbuster hit Gravity, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are in a shuttle that is going through a debris field every 90 mins. The only way this could happen is if some of the debris was moving in the same orbit as the shuttle but in the opposite direction, as schematically shown in the figure to the right. Assume the orbits are perfectly circular for simplicity, and use the fact that the mass and radius of the earth are = 5.973 X 10^24 kg and R = 6.370 X 10^3 km, respectively. (a) What is the altitude of the orbit of the two pseudo-astronauts? (b) What speed are George and Sandra moving at? (c) Say Sandra?s mass (with spacesuit and all) is 85 kg. What is her total energy in this orbit?
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