A weather satellite of mass 300kg is to be placed in a circular orbit at an altitude of 800km above the Earth’s surface. Neglect changes in kinetic energy during the launch so that only the change in gravitational potential energy has to be supplied.
(i) Calculate the amount of work that must be done on the satellite to raise it from the Earth’s surface to the required altitude.
(ii) Express the result of part (i) as work per unit mass of the satellite.
(iii) Comment on whether this value would change if a satellite of a different mass were launched to the same altitude under the same assumptions.