whitetiger
Nov29-06, 12:42 AM
An unmanned spacecraft is in a circular orbit around the moon, observing the lunar surface from an altitude of 43.0 km (see Appendix F). To the dismay of scientists on earth, an electrical fault causes an on-board thruster to fire, decreasing the speed of the spacecraft by 20.0 m/s.
If nothing is done to correct its orbit, with what speed (in km/h) will the spacecraft crash into the lunar surface?
Take the gravitational constant to be 6.673 x 10^-11\cdot {\rm m}^{2}/{\rm kg}^{2}, the mass of the Moon to be 7.35 x 10^22\:{\rm kg}, and the radius of the Moon to be 1.74 x 10^{6}\:{\rm m}.
We can use equation v = sqrt(Gme)/r))
If nothing is done to correct its orbit, with what speed (in km/h) will the spacecraft crash into the lunar surface?
Take the gravitational constant to be 6.673 x 10^-11\cdot {\rm m}^{2}/{\rm kg}^{2}, the mass of the Moon to be 7.35 x 10^22\:{\rm kg}, and the radius of the Moon to be 1.74 x 10^{6}\:{\rm m}.
We can use equation v = sqrt(Gme)/r))