After graduating form OSU you are hired by NASA to work in mission control; your

Question

After graduating form OSU you are hired by NASA to work in mission control; your task is guide one of the Mars Rover. Mars is about 2.0*10^8km away form Earth. Communication signals can travel at the speed of light (3.0*10^8m/s). In order to keep your job you need to make sure the rover does not crash or fall into a Martian cliff. Calculate how long it takes for the video feed (images beamed back from the rover to ground control) to reach earth. Your rover travels at 3.0 m/s. Assuming manual control, how much distance does the vehicle travel from the time an obstacle is seen by the rover and the brakes are applied by the rover?

Explanation / Answer

part a:

as data travels at speed of light i.e. 3*10^8 m/s,

and distance to be covered is distance of mars from earth i.e. 2*10^8 km=2*10^11 m,

then time taken for the signal to reach earth=distance/speed=2*10^11/(3*10^8)=666.67 seconds=11.11 minutes

part b:

when an obstacle is seen, that video feed taken 11.11 minutes to reach you

once you have seen it, you send a signal to apply brakes. that will again take 11.11 minutes to reach the rover

hence total time spent=11.11+11.11=22.22 minutes

in that time the rover will travel=speed*time

=3*(22.22*60)=3996.6 m

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.