Sorry for my long letter. I should have checked out your profile first, to now understand your not so young and are pursing a degree in meteorology. But even more so. At this point you should be aware of the ways your original question(s) where posted. I still think my advice was solid.
Understand your questions where a bit loaded. I’ll leave it go at that. No offense in any way meant.
Kepler’s laws and Newton’s laws, but of course you are familiar with these, being a science geek.
Picture yourself boosted aloft towards the horizon by a truly powerful force. You rise higher and higher. The air gets thinner and thinner until it pretty much isn’t. By this time, you are moving really fast. And the earth below you is curved. It falls away as you pass over it. But you fall towards it as fast it falls away. You are now in orbit.
If you are just a science tourist, try not to belittle the scientific knowledge of the real geeks by asking for a quick answer to something they have prepared themselves to understand with years of hard work.
If you are really interested in the science of satellites, and have kept up with your mathematics, then you should read this book:
http://books.google.com/books?id=UtJK8cetqGkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
A classic astronautics book for the layman, if you can find a copy:
http://books.google.com/books/about/Exploring_the_secrets_of_space.html?id=WuB4AAAAIAAJ
Magic.
Around the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdpsOSXWBBs
I know next to nothing about how satellites work myself, but have wondered at how Dish Network etc. can control my individual TV (that I pulled the plug on quite some time ago) from a satellite so far, far away. It must be set up somehow to direct a wave very narrowly or I would think that a person could pick up random waves. Also, I wonder how one can order movies and things. I can understand a wave being directed at me, but does the little satellite on the garage throw rays back at it, or is the info all in the box and regulated through it somehow? To think that it can control thousands and thousands of TVs from way up there is amazing. Also, do those large satellites out in the country have to have subscriptions in order to get their TVs to come in or are they large enough and made to simply pull in waves without subscriptions somehow? Does Dish Network etc. have rights to the waves and is there such a thing as pirating them? I would like some of the large, gaping spaces in my knowledge filled in a little, just for personal satisfaction. I suppose my questions seem moronic to the knowledgeable about satellites, but there is the old adage that no question is a stupid question.
Suddenly, out of big billowing cloud, rocket leaves ground and goes up high in the sky.
Higher and higher goes rocket until blue sky turns black.
Rocket eventually tips over and circles round and round the Earth. At some point, little satellite gets ejected from rocket and then rocket falls back to Earth to die in flames during re-entry.
Little satellite gets turned on by people down on earth. Makes little beeping noises as antenna and other things come out. After a time, people down on Earth start getting messages sent to them by the satellite. In my case, I get my Sirius radio by one of these satellites but mostly I keep it tuned to Deep Tracks, Outlaw Country or that one station that plays all that blues music.
Google is a great resource, as are other search engines.
The best thing about them is that they don’t insult you or call you names when you ask something.
One problem is that air resistance will slow it down, so it will quick;y come crashing down again. However, if you can get it up high enough, where there is no air, there will be little to slow it down, so it will stay in orbit indefinitely. The faster it goes, the higher its orbit will be.
To get it back down, you simply have to slow it down. The astronauts use "retro rockets", rockets that point in the reverse direction of travel so that they actually make it go slower.
bk
Before we begin, would you move your coffee away from the keyboard? We're all worried you're about to spill it. That's better.
Now about how satellites work...
; D