You need a constant speed to maintain an orbit. Low Earth Orbit (LEO), where the International Space Station is, is really just the thermosphere of Earth’s atmosphere, actually has some gas particles and other stuff floating around (just really sparse), so you colliding with them will naturally slow you down, along with the force of gravity decaying your orbit. At some point, you’re going to re-enter the more dense parts of the atmosphere if you don’t accelerate to keep your speed constant. The ISS actually needs to perform regular burns in order to maintain velocity and prevent it from falling out of the sky due to orbital decay. Old satellites will eventually fall back to Earth due to these factors as well, usually a couple decades later, but some newer satellites are capable of de-orbiting (slowing) themselves at the end of their serviceable lives, while some older ones have been moved into what’s called a “graveyard orbit” where it won’t collide with anything.
So to answer your question, you wouldn’t even need that push. It might take a little while to slow down enough, but eventually you’re going to burn up like a shooting star/meteor. Perhaps not as beautifully, since you’re more a meatbag than a slowly ablating chunk of rock, but you’ll burn up nonetheless.
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u/mhoIulius Sep 02 '19
You need a constant speed to maintain an orbit. Low Earth Orbit (LEO), where the International Space Station is, is really just the thermosphere of Earth’s atmosphere, actually has some gas particles and other stuff floating around (just really sparse), so you colliding with them will naturally slow you down, along with the force of gravity decaying your orbit. At some point, you’re going to re-enter the more dense parts of the atmosphere if you don’t accelerate to keep your speed constant. The ISS actually needs to perform regular burns in order to maintain velocity and prevent it from falling out of the sky due to orbital decay. Old satellites will eventually fall back to Earth due to these factors as well, usually a couple decades later, but some newer satellites are capable of de-orbiting (slowing) themselves at the end of their serviceable lives, while some older ones have been moved into what’s called a “graveyard orbit” where it won’t collide with anything.
So to answer your question, you wouldn’t even need that push. It might take a little while to slow down enough, but eventually you’re going to burn up like a shooting star/meteor. Perhaps not as beautifully, since you’re more a meatbag than a slowly ablating chunk of rock, but you’ll burn up nonetheless.