There is strong evidence that Europa, a satellite of Jupiter, has a liquid ocean

Question

There is strong evidence that Europa, a satellite of Jupiter, has a liquid ocean beneath its icy surface. Many scientists think we should land a vehicle there to search for life. Before launching it, we would want to test such a lander under the gravity conditions at the surface of Europa. One way to do this is to put the lander at the end of a rotating arm in an orbiting earth satellite. the arm is 5.00m long and pivots about one end, at what angular speed (in rpm ) should it spin so that the acceleration of the lander is the same as the acceleration due to gravity at the surface of Europa? The mass of Europa is 4.8*10^22 kg and its diameter is 3138 km .

Explanation / Answer

g at the surface of europa=GM/r2=0.3253m/s2

g=2r

=0.255 rad/s= 0.255/2*60rpm

=2.435 rpm

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