Name: ________________________________ Class: _______ Date: ________________

Satellite Motion - The International Space Station

YouTube Video: Energy in Satellite Motion: https://
tinyurl.com/ndksvw96

(1) The International Space Station (ISS) is a modular

space station (habitable artificial satellite) in low Earth
orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involv-
ing five participating space agencies. The ISS provides a
platform to conduct scientific research, with power,
data, cooling, and crew available to support experi-
ments. ISS

Due to friction with Earth’s atmosphere the ISS must

regularly use fuel to maintain its orbit, otherwise it will fall back to Earth. Its orbit is continually
dropping by about 300 feet (90 meters) per day. The energy in its fuel is used to correct the decay
of the ISS’s orbit.

ISS Mass 4.5 • 105 kg

Earth Mass 5.97 • 1024 kg
Earth Radius 6 378 km

In August and September of 2020 the orbital height of the ISS was increased from 418 km to 423
km.

a) What was the change in the potential energy of the ISS during this orbital height correction?

b) How much work is done on the ISS to make this orbital correction?

© Brian Swarthout 2021