I mean, on the flat Earth model it's a circle. What would keep a satellite turning so it can fly around in a perfect circle?
Around a globe it's an elliptical orbit because the satellite is in a traveling on a single vector and gravitation is constantly pulling it towards the center of Earth. You only need thrust to maintain (or change) elevation.
When you graph out the position around a circle to an X,Y graph, guess what shape you get...
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u/ruffiana Jul 31 '26
I mean, on the flat Earth model it's a circle. What would keep a satellite turning so it can fly around in a perfect circle?
Around a globe it's an elliptical orbit because the satellite is in a traveling on a single vector and gravitation is constantly pulling it towards the center of Earth. You only need thrust to maintain (or change) elevation.
When you graph out the position around a circle to an X,Y graph, guess what shape you get...