Preface

This article has been primarily based on my personal notes on the analysis of GEO orbit by considering the
gravitational force exerted on the satellite which provides the centripetal acceleration to maintain a circular
orbit around Earth.

At the time of writing, an online article1 mentioned the discovery of an “Earth-like” planet known as
COROT-7b located 150 parsecs away and that, “COROT-7b orbits its star [COROT-7] at a speed of more
than 750,000 km per hour, more than seven times faster than the Earth’s motion around the Sun”. This quote
from the article juggled around in my head and resulted in the culmination of an alternative analysis, which
proved the Earth’s orbital velocity about the Sun as approximately one-seventh of that of COROT-7b’s, and
lead to the derivation of a means for evaluating the orbital velocity without the need for stating an orbital
period.

Further musings on COROT-7b resulted in the discussion about escape velocity, which is significantly
related to many of the concepts discussed at the outset of this article; at least, the simple task of placing a
satellite in a geosynchronous orbit around the Earth.

— Michael de Silva, September 2009

Comments, Criticism, and Contribution

If you have any suggestions or discover errors in this document, write to michael@mwdesilva.com to
help make this document better. Thanks in advance for your contribution.

Contributors will be acknowledged in this document.

1
http://www.independent.ie/world-news/scientists-find-first-earthlike-planet-outside-solar-system-1888840.html
 Michael M. Wijetunge de Silva
MSc (Dist), BEng (Hons), MIEEE, MIEE, AMIMechE(UK), MASME
email: michael@mwdesilva.com • blog: bsodmike.com • résumé: mwdesilva.com

1 Clark’s Geostationary Orbit (GEO)

This is an analysis utilising concepts from classical mechanics to establish the Geostationary Orbit (GEO).

The idea of a geostationary orbit was first published on a wide scale in a paper entitled “Extra-Terrestrial
Relays - Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?” by Arthur C. Clarke, published in
Wireless World magazine in 1945. In this paper, Clarke described it as a useful orbit for communications
satellites. As a result this is commonly referred to as the Clarke Orbit (Hunley, Noordung, Stuhlinger and
Garland, 1995).

It can be said that the centripetal acceleration required to maintain a circular

Fcentripetal = Fgravity (1)

From Newton’s second law of motion, this is equivalent to mac = mg

v2
|acentripetal | = = ω2r (2)
r

In his law of universal gravitation, Newton states that two particles having masses m1 and m2 separated by
a distance r are attracted to each other with equal and opposite forces directed along the line joining the

1
 Michael M. Wijetunge de Silva
MSc (Dist), BEng (Hons), MIEEE, MIEE, AMIMechE(UK), MASME
email: michael@mwdesilva.com • blog: bsodmike.com • résumé: mwdesilva.com

particles. The common magnitude F of the two forces is,

m m 
1 2
F =G (3)
r2

Considering the force the Earth exerts on an object, if the object has a mass m, and the Earth has mass M ,
and the object’s distance from the centre of the Earth is r, then the force that the Earth exerts on the object
is,

 
mM
F =G (4)
r2

If we drop the object, the Earth’s gravity will cause it to accelerate toward the centre of the Earth. By
Newton’s second law (F = ma), the magnitude of this acceleration must equal |g| = (GmM/r2 )/m, or,

GM
|g| = (5)
r2

where M is the mass of the Earth, 5.9736 × 1024 kg, and G is the gravitational constant, 6.67428 ±
0.00067 × 10−11 m3 kg-1 s-2 .

Therefore,

Fcentripetal = Fgravity
mM
mω 2 r = G 2
r
GM (6)
ω2r = 2
r r r
3 GM 3 GM µ
r = 2 →r= 2
= 3 2
ω ω ω

2
 Michael M. Wijetunge de Silva
MSc (Dist), BEng (Hons), MIEEE, MIEE, AMIMechE(UK), MASME
email: michael@mwdesilva.com • blog: bsodmike.com • résumé: mwdesilva.com

where the standard gravitational parameter, µ = GM , and is known with much greater accuracy. It is
known as the geocentric gravitational constant for Earth, where µearth = 398, 600.4418 ± 0.0008 km3 s-2 .

This formula could be generally applied to any planet if M = Mp , the mass of the planet in question, and
ω = 2π/Tp , where Tp would be the (sidereal) rotational period of the planet,

s
3 GMp Tp2 (7)
r=
4π 2

Considering the orbital period (the time taken for a single complete revolution around the Earth) to be one
sidereal day, or 86, 164.09054 s, the angular velocity ω is obtained (from ω = 2πf = 2π/T ) by dividing
the angle travelled in one revolution (360◦ = 2π radians) by the orbital period T,

r v
µ u 398.6004418 × 103
3
r= =u 2 = 42, 164.1696 km
u
ω 2 3

(8)
t 2π
86.16409054 × 103

Subtracting the Earth’s equatorial radius of 6, 378 km, gives an altitude of 35, 786.17 km for the Clark’s
orbit from the surface of the Earth. The total circumference of the orbit is 264, 925.29 km.

Evaluating the velocity of the satellite along this orbit,

v = ωr
 
2π
= · 42, 164.1696 (9)
86.16409054 × 103
≈ 3.0747.66 km/s ≈ 11, 068.776 km/h ≈ 6, 877.819 mph

3
 Michael M. Wijetunge de Silva
MSc (Dist), BEng (Hons), MIEEE, MIEE, AMIMechE(UK), MASME
email: michael@mwdesilva.com • blog: bsodmike.com • résumé: mwdesilva.com

1.1 An Alternative Evaluation of the Satellites Velocity Along Clark’s Orbit

An alternative derivation of the velocity of the satellite along this orbit may be obtained by a slightly
different consideration of Equation (1),

vorbit 2
Fcentripetal = m = mgorbit = Fgravity (10)
rorbit

From Equation (5)2 it can be seen that the gravitational force at an altitude of 35,786.96 km is only 2.285%
of that at the surface of the Earth,

GMearth µearth
gorbit = 2
= = 2.24199393 × 10−1 m/s2 (11)
rorbit (6378 km · 6.611)2

From Equation (10), an expression may be obtained for the orbital velocity of the satellite.

√
r
µearth
vorbit = rorbit · gorbit = = 3.0746 km/s (12)
rorbit

However, it should be noted that the orbital period has not been considered up to this point in this alternative
analysis. From v = ωr two equations for the orbital period, T, may be obtained since ω = 2π/T ,

2πrorbit
T =
vorbit
s (13)
rorbit 3
= 2π = 86, 166.507 s
µearth

The orbital period above is quite close to the value of a sidereal day, 86, 164.09054 s, but is not equal. This
is due to the lack of precision in the radius multiplier used for Clark’s Orbit, in the analysis above.
2
The geocentric gravitational constant, µearth , has units km3 s-2 . Hence, gorbit has been converted from km/s2 to m/s2 above.

4
 Michael M. Wijetunge de Silva
MSc (Dist), BEng (Hons), MIEEE, MIEE, AMIMechE(UK), MASME
email: michael@mwdesilva.com • blog: bsodmike.com • résumé: mwdesilva.com

Suppose a satellite could be put into orbit, right above the surface of the Earth, whilst ignoring air drag and
the terrific sonic boom that would accompany such an orbit. It would have a theoretical orbital period of
1.4 hours3 and an orbital velocity of vorbit = 7.91 × 103 m/s.

If one were to consider the Earth’s orbital velocity about the Sun, the result could be obtained as,

2π 2π
v = ωr = r= (1 AU) = 29, 805.66 m/s or 107, 300.36 km/h (14)
T 31.536 × 106

Similarly, Equation (12) may be used with the heliocentric gravitational constant, µsun . Hence, the orbital
velocity of the earth would be given by,

r
µsun
vorbit = (1 AU) · = 29, 784.69 m/s (15)
(1 AU)2

Equation (15) provides a more accurate approximation as it does not consider the orbital period. The
orbital period in Equation (14), T , is taken as an approximation to a standard year of 365 days in the above
example.

2 “Surface” Escape Velocity of Earth

The term escape velocity can be considered a misnomer because it is actually a scalar (and not a vector), i.e.
it specifies how fast the object must move but the direction of movement is irrelevant, unless “downward”.

If a force acting on an object is a function of position only, it is said to be a conservative force, and it can
be represented by a potential energy function which for a one-dimensional case satisfies the derivative
condition,

dU
− = F (x) (16)
dx
3
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/HBASE/mechanics/earthole.html

5
 Michael M. Wijetunge de Silva
MSc (Dist), BEng (Hons), MIEEE, MIEE, AMIMechE(UK), MASME
email: michael@mwdesilva.com • blog: bsodmike.com • résumé: mwdesilva.com

Hence, the definition of potential energy, in terms of r,

Z r
U (r) = − F(r)dr (17)
r0

with the choice of the zero of potential energy at infinite distance where the force approaches zero, the
gravitational potential energy is the work done to bring an object from infinity to radius r,

Z r
GM GM
U =− −m 2
dr = −m (18)
∞ r r

To derive the formula for escape velocity consider the use of conservation of energy. Imagine a space
shuttle of mass m is at a distance r from the centre of mass of the planet, whose mass is M . Its initial speed
is equal to its escape velocity, vescape . At its final state, it will be an infinite distance awgay from the planet,
and its speed will be negligibly small and assumed to be 0. Gravitational potential energy U and kinetic
energy K are the only types of energy concerned; as per the conservation of energy,

(U + K)i = (U + K)f
GM 1 (19)
−m + mv 2 = 0 + 0
r 2

It can be seen that Kf = 0 as the final velocity is assumed 0 and Uf = 0 as the final distance is approximated
to infinity. Hence, the escape velocity is,

r
2GM (20)
vescape =
r

The orbit velocity for a circular orbit may be found by equating the gravitational force, Equation (5), to the

6
required centripetal force, Equation (2),

r
GM mv 2 GM (21)
= → vorbit =
r2 r r

Note that the orbit velocity and the escape velocity from that radius are related by,

√
vescape = 2 · vorbit (22)

On the surface of the Earth, the escape velocity is approximately 11,186.436 m/s or 40,271.17 km/h.
However, at 9,000 km altitude in “space”, it is slightly less than 7.1 km/s.

Escape velocity is independent of the mass of the escaping object. It does not matter if the mass is 1 kg
or 1,000 kg, escape velocity from the same point in the same gravitational field is always the same. What
differs is the amount of energy needed to accelerate the mass to achieve escape velocity: the energy needed
for an object of mass m to escape the Earth’s gravitational field is mGM/r, a function of the object’s mass.
More massive objects require more energy to reach escape velocity. All of this, of course, assumes we are
neglecting air resistance.

Trivia!

To evaluate the velocity at which the Earth’s surface rotates (on its own axes) where the Earth’s equatorial
radius (WGS84 ellipsoid) is taken as 6, 378.137 km,

2π 2π
v = ωr = r= rearth = 463.82 m/s (23)
T 86, 400

References

Hunley, J. D., Noordung, H., Stuhlinger, E. and Garland, J. (1995). The Problem of Space Travel: The
Rocket Motor, Diane Publishing Co.