Orbits: Escape Velocity
Now consider the rocket/spacecraft
after it has "escaped" the Earth, and traveled to the farthest reaches of
space....
![spacecraft1.gif (77201 bytes)](../../../../Multimedia/Images/CelestialMechanics/spacecraft1.gif)
Q: What is the
"final" total energy of the
"system"?
![TEequals0_boxed.gif (1999 bytes)](../../../../Multimedia/Images/Formulae/TEequals0_boxed.gif)
Yes, ZERO!
Remember that energy is a relative concept, so you can have a location where the relative
energy is 0!