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A comment on What If the Moon Orbited at the Same Height as the ISS?. Parent comment

Re:What If the Moon Orbited at the Same Height as the ISS? by Crito on Monday May 19, 2014 @01:21PM (#7768585)
My guess is that tidal forces (speeding up Earth's rotation, but slowing down the moon (the opposite of what happens in this reality)) would dominate over atmospheric drag.

How much atmospheric drag affects a spacecraft in LEO is a complex problem, being a function of the spacecraft's mass, surface area, orientation, etc. However the moon is dense enough that it would probably be fairly content to barrel through the sparse atmosphere for quite some time.

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Re:What If the Moon Orbited at the Same Height as the ISS? by theandrewbailey on Monday May 19, 2014 @03:33PM (#7769304)
Due to tidal forces, I suspect that the moon would start to steal some of Earth's atmosphere. I'm not sure if that would slow it down or not.
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