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rgroom1

says...

When an object is in orbit, it is already in free-fall, but the centripetal force going up is equaled by the force of gravity going down. If you chuck something down, it will continue that way until it hits the ground.

In reply to this comment by GabaJ:
>> ^bamdrew:
some day I'd like to be hurtling through the vacuum of space and just full-on chuck something down at Earth.

I have a question for the physicists - what would happen to an object thrown perpendicular to your orbit down toward earth? Disregard atmospheric drag. After one orbit, would that object come back up towards you as fast as you chucked it?

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9812

said:

<a href="/video/Astronaut-loses-toolbag-in-space-OOPS#comment-585298">In reply to this comment by rychan</a>:
>> <a href='http://www.videosift.com/video/Astronaut-loses-toolbag-in-space-OOPS#comment-585164'>^GabaJ</a>: I have a question for the physicists - what would happen to an object thrown perpendicular to your orbit down toward earth? Disregard atmospheric drag. After one orbit, would that object come back up towards you as fast as you chucked it?

Good question.

Assumption: you don't throw it far enough towards Earth for atmospheric drag to matter, and you are more massive than the object.

my answer: I don't think so, and it's not a simple matter. Lets say you were in a perfectly circular orbit. You throw the object down and now it's in an eccentric orbit (and so are you, for that matter). It no longer has the same orbital period as you, because it has a longer semi-major axis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-major_axis) which means it has a slower orbit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_period)

I could be wrong, though.

Thank you for your thoughts.  After additional consideration this is what I think would happen:  The fastest you could throw an object while in a space suit and anchored to the space station is maybe 20 or 30 miles per hour. As you say, this would put it in an elliptical orbit. If the station orbits once every 90 minutes in a circular orbit, then the object would go straight down and a little ahead as it picks up speed, but only for about 20 some minutes and 10, 15 miles. (this is the part I can't calculate) After half an orbit it would come back up and miss you because no one could throw so accuaretly that they can hit something 30 miles away.  Then after one full orbit, it would come back from "above".  and so on...

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