Orbital velocity and period, escape velocity, surface gravity, your weight on the Moon or Mars, and the gravitational force between two masses.
A circular orbit 400 km above Earth needs 7.6726 km/s and takes 92.414 minutes per lap. Mass of the satellite doesn't matter.
Newton's law of gravitation, F = Gm₁m₂/r², gives the pull between two masses. For a body of mass M the same law sets the speed of a circular orbit, v = √(GM/r), its period from Kepler's third law, T = 2π√(r³/GM), the escape velocity √(2GM/r) and the surface gravity GM/R². Pick the Earth, Moon, Mars, Jupiter or the Sun, or enter any mass and radius.
The default, an orbit 400 km above Earth like the International Space Station's, gives 7.67 km/s (about 17,200 mph) and 92.4 minutes per lap. Entering one sidereal day, 23.934 hours, as the period returns the geostationary radius of 42,164 km.
Radii are volumetric means from NASA's fact sheets and rotation is ignored, so Earth's surface gravity comes out at 9.82 m/s², between the 9.78 m/s² measured at the equator and 9.83 m/s² at the poles. Orbits are circular and drag-free.
Checked against: Python 3.8 decimal: GM = 6.6743e-11 × 5.9722e24, r = 6771 km, v = √(GM/r) = 7672.619, T = 2π√(r³/GM) = 1.5402335 h
Checked against: Python 3.8 decimal: r = (GM T²/4π²)^⅓ = 42164.2 km (the published GEO radius); minus the 6371 km mean radius (35,786 km is quoted above the 6378 km equatorial radius)
Checked against: Python 3.8 decimal: √(GM/R) with R = 6371.0 km = 7909.813
Checked against: Python 3.8 decimal: √(2GM/R) = 11186.165 m/s (NASA fact sheet lists 11.186 km/s)
About 7.67 km/s at 400 km altitude, which is 27,600 km/h or roughly 17,200 mph, and one lap takes 92.4 minutes. The speed depends only on Earth's GM and the orbit radius (6,771 km here), not on the station's mass. Raising the orbit to 410 km slows it by 5.7 m/s and lengthens the lap by 12 seconds.
11.186 km/s from the surface, about 40,270 km/h, the figure on NASA's Earth fact sheet. It is the speed at which an unpowered object never falls back, ignoring air drag, and it is the same for a pebble and a rocket. The Moon's is 2.38 km/s, Mars's 5.03 km/s and Jupiter's about 60 km/s. From 400 km up it drops to 10.85 km/s.
Escaping takes twice the kinetic energy of a circular orbit at the same height. In a circular orbit the kinetic energy is GMm/2r; reaching infinity needs GMm/r, the full depth of the potential well. Doubling kinetic energy multiplies speed by √2 ≈ 1.414, so the 7.67 km/s orbital speed at 400 km above Earth becomes an escape speed of 10.85 km/s.
35,786 km above the equator, a radius of 42,164 km from Earth's centre. At that radius Kepler's third law gives a period of one sidereal day, 23 h 56 min 4 s, so the satellite keeps pace with Earth's rotation. Entering that period here gives the same radius and an altitude of 35,793 km, because the calculator subtracts the 6,371 km mean radius rather than the 6,378 km equatorial radius.
About 16.6% of your Earth weight on the Moon and 38% on Mars. Surface gravity GM/R² is 1.62 m/s² on the Moon and 3.73 m/s² on Mars with NASA's mean radii, against the 9.80665 m/s² standard gravity defined for Earth. A 70 kg person weighs 113.7 N on the Moon, which a scale calibrated on Earth would show as 11.6 kg.
Accuracy depends on your inputs and the method's assumptions. Decimal arithmetic uses 50 significant digits, but estimates, numerical methods and source data can be less precise; the displayed rounding does not remove those limits. It is checked against 8 worked examples whose answers come from independent sources; for example, “ISS-like orbit at 400 km” is checked against Python 3.8 decimal: GM = 6.6743e-11 × 5.9722e24, r = 6771 km, v = √(GM/r) = 7672.619, T = 2π√(r³/GM) = 1.5402335 h.
OpenStax University Physics Volume 1, ch. 13 Gravitation (§13.5 Satellite orbits, §13.3 Escape velocity); CODATA 2022 — Newtonian constant of gravitation G = 6.67430(15) × 10⁻¹¹ m³ kg⁻¹ s⁻²; NASA Planetary Fact Sheets (mass, volumetric mean radius).
8 worked examples with independently sourced answers ship with this calculator. They run in the test suite; you can run them here too.
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