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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!alberta!sask!zaphod!dkatz
From: dkatz@zaphod.UUCP (Dave Katz)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Getting stuck in the middle of space
Message-ID: <251@zaphod.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 22-May-85 11:36:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: zaphod.251
Posted: Wed May 22 11:36:31 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 24-May-85 05:14:43 EDT
References: <1637@mordor.UUCP> <1949@sdcrdcf.UUCP> <129@mecc.UUCP>
Reply-To: dkatz@zaphod.UUCP (Dave Katz)
Organization: Develcon Electronics, Saskatoon, SK
Lines: 17
Summary: 

In article <129@mecc.UUCP> sewilco@mecc.UUCP (Scot E. Wilcoxon) writes:
>  ...
>Getting stuck "motionless" in vacuum is another matter.  But
>if one got stuck there by pushing another mass away, won't
>the astronaut and the mass meet again in one orbit?  I'm sure
>someone reading this knows with more certainty than I, but I
>think the two orbits will cross.   .....

Depend partly on what you mean by "crossing".

If the objects are not of equal mass, the lighter one will have a
greater velocity (conservation of momentum), and hence a lower orbit
since the radius of orbit is inversly proportional to the velocity.

This gets more complex with considerations of the angle, relative to
the direction of travel, etc.  leading to elliptical orbits, etc.
but will only apply as stated if both bodies have the same mass.