What specific physical quantity ensures a satellite maintains its orbit without continuous propulsion?
Orbital velocity
A satellite stays in stable orbit when its orbital velocity provides exactly the centripetal requirement matched by Earth's gravitational pull. The required orbital speed at radius r is \(v = \sqrt{GM/r}\).
If the velocity is too low the satellite falls; if too high it escapes. Mass of the satellite is irrelevant (it cancels out); gravitational pull supplies the centripetal force but is not the quantity the satellite 'has'; atmospheric drag actually degrades low orbits, it doesn't maintain them.
Hence orbital velocity is the critical quantity.
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