How Does Gravity Affect an Astronaut's Weight Near the Moon?

[jfahlgr1]

I really have no idea where to start or how to even do this...

(a) What is the apparent weight of a 78-kg astronaut 5200 km from the center of the Earth's Moon in a space vehicle moving at constant velocity?
(b) is this towards or away from the moon?
(c) What is the magnitude of the apparent weight of a 78 kg astronaut 5200 km from the center of the Earth's Moon in a space vehicle accelerating toward the moon at 3.2 m/s^2?
(d) is this towards or away from the moon?

 

[tiny-tim]

Welcome to PF!

(a) What is the apparent weight of a 78-kg astronaut 5200 km from the center of the Earth's Moon in a space vehicle moving at constant velocity?
(b) is this towards or away from the moon?
(c) What is the magnitude of the apparent weight of a 78 kg astronaut 5200 km from the center of the Earth's Moon in a space vehicle accelerating toward the moon at 3.2 m/s^2?
(d) is this towards or away from the moon?

Hi jfahlgr1! Welcome to PF!

I don't really understand question (a) … is that the whole question?

Let's go straight to question (c) …

the apparent weight is the force exerted by the astronaut's feet and the spaceship on each other …

calculate it using Newton's second law of motion, and the law of gravitational force.

 

[.:Endeavour:.]

First of all you have to know the mass of the Moon first before getting the weight of the astronaut. You use this formula to find F_g:

F_g = \frac{GM}{r^2}

where:
G = gravitational constant (6.67 * 10^-11)
M = Mass of the Moon
r = 5,200,000 meters (5200 km)

After you get F_g then you mutiply it from the mass of the astronaut to get its weight.

The direction in question D is is towards the moon because you already said that the vehicle is accelerating towards the moon at 3.2 m/s².