The International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth at an altitude of around 410 km. The ISS does not fall towards the Earth, and the astronauts & objects are floating weightlessly. On Earth's surface, objects fall with a gravitational acceleration of approximately 9.81 m/s².
(a) Show that the following equation gives the percentage P of how much the grav. acceleration decreases between the surface of Earth (R: Earth's radius, 6371 km) and an object at altitude 2:
2 P(2)=1-(1+)
(b) What is P(2) for the altitude of the ISS, and why are objects weightless nevertheless? (c) At what distance does the grav. acceleration become only 1% of that on Earth's surface?
