5 ms·
Serious question, how does it stop when it gets to the right place? Does it have to thrust in the opposite direction or does it use some gravitational effect to
by makerofthings 5y ago
Serious question, how does it stop when it gets to the right place? Does it have to thrust in the opposite direction or does it use some gravitational effect to slip into orbit?
- csb6 5y agoThe telescope slows down over time due to Earth’s gravitational pull. IIRC the trip to L2 was all driven by momentum after the rocket released it. The rocket boosted it in the right direction/speed so that gravity would slow it to a stop at the right place.
- frosted-flakes 5y agoPicture rolling a ball up a hill. If you don't roll it fast enough it will roll back down before reaching the top. If you roll it too fast it will go over the top and roll down the other side. Just right, and it will stop at the top of the hill. But being at the top of the hill, it's an unstable orbit, and any small drift will end up with the ball eventually rolling back down the hill. That's why occasional course corrections are required, and why the lifetime of the satellite is determined by the amount of fuel it has.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- belter 5y ago"...Webb will orbit around L2, not sit stationary precisely at L2..." https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- nate_meurer 5y agoIt's like bowls, or curling (the sports). It's a million mile curl. At the end of the curl, the telescope has close to zero radial velocity with respect to Earth (that is, its orbit around the Sun is parallel to Earth's and has the same period). At that point there will be an orbit injection burn to put it into a small elliptical orbit around the Lagrange point.