You are an astronaut on the International Space Station. Unfortunately, one of y

Question

You are an astronaut on the International Space Station. Unfortunately, one of your colleagues there is trying to kill you. During a space walk, you find that both your safety line and your jet thruster pack have been sabotaged. You are 200 meters from the station and moving together with it. To get back to the station, you decide to unstrap your 10-kg tool kit and throw it away with all your strength, so that it has a speed of 8 m/s. Your mass, including your space suit (but not the tool kit), is 80 kg. How long does it take you to get back the station? This time is important, because you may or may not have enough air to survive that long!

Explanation / Answer

Speed resulting from throwing the tool kit can be found from the law of conservation of momentum.

Initially (before the throw) you and the tool kit are at rest and so have zero momentum. So, equate this initial zero momentum to the sum of the your 'sand tool kit’s final momentum:

MU + mu = MV +mv

0 + 0 = MV + mv

V = -mv/M = 10*8/(80) = -1 m/s (-Ve signs mean in opposite direction)

time it will take to reach station

t = distance/Velocity = d/V

time = 200/1 = 200 sec

So if remaining air is more than enough for 200 sec than you will survuve.

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