In: Physics
A package of mass 50 kg sits on an airless asteroid of mass 1.25 x 10^13 kg and radius 1000 m. We want to launch the package straight up so that it reaches a maximum distance of 4000 m from the center of the asteroid, where it will be picked up by a waiting ship before it can fall back down. We have a powerful spring whose stiffness is 1000 N/m. How much must we compress the spring to release it with the energy needed to reach the required altitude?
DATA
SOLUTION
Since the asteroid is airless, there are no frictional forces exerted on the package. So, we can apply the Principle of Conservation of Mechanical Energy to get the distance xcomp.
inserting data given, we get
or