Space Walk: You have been hired to check the technical correctness of an upcomin

Question

Space Walk: You have been hired to check the technical correctness of an upcoming made-for-TV murder mystery that takes place in the space shuttle. In one scene, an astronaut's safety line is cut while on a space walk. The astronaut, who is 200 meters from the shuttle and not moving with respect to it, finds that the suit's thruster pack has also been damaged and no longer works and that only 4 minutes of air remains. To get back to the shuttle, the astronaut unstraps a 10 kg tool kit and throws it away with a speed of 8 m/s. In the script, the astronaut, who has a mass of 80 kg without the toolkit, survives, but is this correct? [LO 46, LO 48]

Explanation / Answer

Given data:

m = 80kg = m1

toolkit = 10 kg = m2

v = 8 m/s

time left = 4 minute = 240 s

By using conservation of momentum.

m1*V = m2*v

80*V = 10*8

V = 1 m/s = speed of astronaut in opposite direction

distance to cover = 200 m

t = 200/1 = 200 s

technically astronaut will survive

astronaut have extra 40 seconds to unstrap the toolkit and throw

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