Question

As your spaceship coasts toward Mars, you need to move a heavy load of 1200 kg along a hallway of the spacecraft that has a 90 degree right turn, without touching the walls, floor, or ceiling, by working remotely, using devices attached to the load that can be programmmed to fire blasts of compressed air for up to 1.0 s in any desired direction. During a blast the load is subjected to a force of 20 N. The center of the load must move 2 m along the first section of the hallway, starting at rest. Let the starting point be <0,0,0> m, with the first section ending at <4,3,0> m. Using just three blasts of compressed air, choose the times when these blasts should be scheduled, their durations, and their directions. How long does it take to complete the entire move?

I know it is not 24 s a similiar or the same question was post at another time and it is wrong. I came up with 13 minutes roughly. If you could be do your best to answer this question, the question is from matter & interactions 4th edition modern mechanics chapter 2. This question was within the usage of the momentum principle section and although you need a grasp of this principle a d = \v\ * t can be used to calculate it I believe. I used a small window of acceleration of 0.5s and a total of 1.0s acceleration at the turn two positions .5s each one ending another starting to get the one blast necessary then .5 seconds of deacceleration at the 4m interval end.  

Hope someone really answer this thank you.

Answer 1

Let me first write the correct question from the book.

As your spaceship coasts toward Mars, you need to move
a heavy load of 1200 kg along a hallway of the spacecraft that has
a 90 degree right turn, without touching the walls, floor, or ceiling, by
working remotely, using devices attached to the load that can be
programmed to fire blasts of compressed air for up to 1.0 s in any
desired direction. During a blast the load is subjected to a force
of 20 N. The center of the load must move 3 m along the first
section of the hallway, starting from rest, then 4 m along the
second section, ending at rest. Let the starting point be ?0, 0, 0? m,
with the first section ending at ?0, 3, 0? m and the second section
ending at ?4, 3, 0? m. Using just three blasts of compressed air,
choose the times when these blasts should be scheduled, their
durations, and their directions. How long does it take to complete
the entire move?