::what do you think happens when your speed is lower than the orbital speed? Answer: you move to a lower orbit, then stay there. When you try to reduce orbit

::what do you think happens when your speed is lower than the orbital speed? Answer: you move to a lower orbit, then stay there. When you try to reduce orbital velocity (say by firing thrusters in the opposite direction), you change to a lower orbit -- you don't just start free falling to the object you are orbiting. In fact, the net effect is that your actual velocity will increase. For example Mercury's velocity is 170,503 km/h, while Earth's is 107,218 km/h, and Mars is 86,677 km/h. Here's another counter-intuitive thing about orbital mechanics. Say you want to catch up to something in front of you -- you fire reverse thrusters, which causes you to fall into a lower (and faster) orbit, then you can fire forward thrusters to raise your orbit once you catch up to the other object (i.e., you do a move that you would normally do to "slow down" in order to "speed up").