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Q&A

Does mass affect orbit size?

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My question refers to a capital ship. Ideally, the ship wants to stay as low as possible. Does the mass of the ship affect its possible orbits? If so, what is the lowest orbit possible for this ship? I don't have a number for its mass, but imagine something like the farragut:

Dimensions: Length: 2040m, Width: 806m, Height: 300m

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This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/89566. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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As I mentioned initially in the comments: no. To the best of my knowledge, the mass of an object only affects how much energy is needed to get that object into a specific orbit. It doesn't affect the actual distance at which that object can orbit. So realistically, the lowest your ship can orbit is just above the edge of the planet's atmosphere. If the planet doesn't have an atmosphere, then you can practically skim across the surface.

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