Maybe this should be in Nostupidquestions as I’m aware the moon exists. And I guess there may be an orbit zone where things tend to remain in orbit. But curious…
The full context question is: For man-made satellites, would they benefit by having a “Self destruct” button?
Sure it may add more debris but since an explosion would scatter debris in all directions, anything flung up or down would cause it to get out of this geostationary zone/band… And hopefully come crashing down to Earth, reducing overall debris? Compared to an abandoned satellite, remaining in orbit and breaking down due to relatively low energy collisions with surrounding debris.
Basically I’m trying to justify self destruct buttons. Thank you!
Depends. Do you mean around a conceptual single body in an infinite void, or are there other things out there?
The (circular) orbits in a gravitational well don’t end, they just get slower and slower as you move outwards forever. But, in real life you’ll be in a zone where other things have just as much pull after a while, and then anything could happen.