Steering A Satellite In Space

In July 2015, the satellite New Horizons flew close by Pluto, capturing detailed, never seen before images of the dwarf planet and its moons.

How are artificial satellites like New Horizons steered in space?

By changing the direction of the rudder By ejecting some mass into space There is no steering equipment on the satellites By changing the direction of the wheels

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2 solutions

Rico Lee
May 25, 2016

I based this one on common sense, really.

There's no fluid in space, obviously, meaning the rudders aren't going to do anything at all in space. So, no for that.

There's no steering equipment on the satellites. Again, choose no for that.

By changing the direction of the wheels? Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

By ejecting some mass into space sounds the most plausible. Imagine a see-saw. If you put more mass on one side and less on the other, then this would cause it to drop to that side. Similarly applying this logic to ejecting mass in space, more mass on one side of the satellite causes it to drop/veer the satellite.

Yes that's a reasonable explanation.

Iqbal Kour - 2 years, 9 months ago

It's more about Newton third law.

Abelian Group - 2 years ago

It's easy to not chose 'ejecting mass', it seems like they're saying the satellite must lose equipments, but it only implies ejecting 'fuel' not burning fuel, one loaded only for the purpose.

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