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?