Deep Space

[Captain]

If I were on a space walk at the ISS and threw a wrench as hard as I could towards deep space would the wrench travel forever until it hit an asteroid, planet or sun?

Or would earths gravity hold it and eventually pull it back to renter the atmosphere and burn up?

 

[Jim Logajan]

I've had the following NEO Press 1969 reprint of a book published in 1884 on my bookshelf for quite a few years. The front and back covers of this particular reprint provide a (in my opinion) wonderfully succinct physical insight into the dynamics of orbit changes.

Here's the explanation from the NEO Press 1969 edition on how to interpret the drawings:

"THE COVER by Craige Schensted shows how the middle orbit in each case is perturbed by a force (indicated by the arrows) acting either along or perpendicular to the radius vector at various points in the orbit. The outer perturbed orbit results when the force force is along one of the arrows; the inner perturbed orbit results when the force is along the other arrow."