An astronaut whose mass is 70 kg becomes separated from his earth satellite whic

Question

An astronaut whose mass is 70 kg becomes separated from his earth satellite which is moving in orbit around earth. He finds himself 25m away the spaceship and moving at exactly the same speed as the ship. He has a 0.60kg camera in his hand and decides to get back to the satellite by throwing the camera as a speed of 10m/s in a direction away from the satellite. (a) Will this maneuver get him back to the ship? Why? (b) How long will it take for the astronaut to reach the satellite? (c) How fast will he be moving when he makes contact with the satellite?

Explanation / Answer

Surely this will get him back to the ship.

When he throws the camera away from the ship, he gets equal and opposite momentum, since momentum is conserved.

So his momentum = 10 x 0.6 = 6 Kgm/sec,

directrd towards the ship.

So, his velocity is    (6 /70) m/sec towards the ship.

He was 25 m away, so time taken to reach the ship:

T = 25 / (his speed)

= 25 x 70/6 = 291.667 sec

Since no other force was acting so this was constant speed motion,

so speed of impact with ship = (6/70) m/sec

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