A spacecraft is placed in a circular orbit above Earth’s surface

PHYSICS · Subjective · CBSE · Physics · Gravitation · Gravitation

Problem

A spacecraft is placed in a circular orbit

400\,\text{km}

above Earth’s surface. Take Earth’s radius

R_{\rm E}=6400\,\text{km}

and

g=9.8\,\text{m\,s}^{-2}

at the surface. (a) Calculate the value of

g

at the orbital height. (b) A crew member has mass

70\,\text{kg}

. Determine the magnitude of her weight in orbit. (c) Find the percentage decrease in her weight compared with the surface value.