The NASA spacecraft deep space 1 was shut down on December 18, 2001, following a

Question

The NASA spacecraft deep space 1 was shut down on December 18, 2001, following a three-year journey to used a solar-powered ion engine to produce 0.064 ounces of thrust (force) by stripping electrons from neon atoms and accelerating the resulting ions to 70,000mi/h. The thrust was only as much as the weight of a couple sheets of paper, but the engine operated continuously for 16,000 hours. As a result, the speed of the spacecraft increased by 7900mi/h. What was the mass of deep space 1? (assume that the mass of the neon gas is negligible.)

Explanation / Answer

by the law of momentum V1m1=v2m2 70000 = 7900 * mass of deepspace 1 mass of deep space 1 = 70000/7900 = 8.86 lb

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