What will remain longer: some of our satellites, or the stuff we left on the moon?

Question

I guess I was really asking if all orbits decay. Those geocentric satellites are 23,000 miles up there. Would their orbits actually decay in a few million years?

Answer 1

The things we left on the moon!

Answer 2

Moon.

The Earth's gravity is slowly pulling all the satellites down.

Answer 3

Stuff on the moon. Because there is no erosion one the moon, except for the rare meteorite, the footprints from Apollo could last 10 million years.

Also no orbit is 100% stable. Every orbit decays eventually without any outside interference or regulation like orbital correction boosters.

Edit: Geostationary orbits will still decay given time due to small gravitational perturbations by the moon and due to the fact that the earth is not an exact sphere.

Answer 4

But Kreia the voyager crafts don't count as satellites anymore cause they left Earth's orbit.  To answer the question the world may never know cause even though satellites will come crashing down how will you know if they'll come down before a meteor hits the stuff on the moon.

Answer 5

The stuff on the moon will last much longer definitively because eventually all the satelites above the earth will burn up in the atmosphere.  Nothing on the moon can destroy the stuff there with the exception of meteors, meteorites o even potentially asteroids.

Answer 6

Same amount of time possibly, Most people who have answered forgot about Voyager 1 and 2 which as long as they don't hit anything outside of the solar system could last a very long time.

Answer 7

the moon.

Our satellites still encounter some resistance from the atmosphere, so when they run out of propellant they will crash back down to earth.  As well as the fact they are very vulnerable to solar radiation and impacts from small meteors and other space debris.

The objects on the moon are persevered in a vacuum and will not have to face erosion and corrosion, and barring a direct impact from a meteor they will remain there indefinitely

Answer 8

I agree it's the moon, but I'm amazed the moon hoax wackos haven't jumped on this one.....