You are to help design a space probe that will land on Titan, a moon of Saturn. The probe also has to launch itself from the surface of that moon as it will come back to Earth with a rock sample. Mass of Titan: 1.35 x 1023 kg, Radius of Titan: 2.574 x 106 m. The sample will have a mass of 0.1 kg, and the rocket that will return it will have a mass of 200 kg (without the fuel). Your engine can fire with 18,800 N. - What is the gravitational acceleration on Titan in m/s2? - What will be the weight of the rocket in Newtons on Titan? - What velocity must the rocket reach in order to escape Titan? - How long would it take the engine to accelerate the rocket to escape velocity? (this assumes that the engine is accelerating the rocket only; we aren’t including the mass of the fuel) Using the information given (and what you figured out) use the following formula to find the total ∆v that your rocket can produce. - Is the ∆v enough to get from 0 m/s to escape velocity? - If it isn’t, plug in the escape velocity for ∆v and solve for I (you leave the ln(m0/mf) the same). What is the minimum specific impulse you need to get off Titan?
You are to help design a space probe that will land on Titan, a moon of Saturn. The probe also has to launch itself from the surface of that moon as it will come back to Earth with a rock sample. Mass of Titan: 1.35 x 1023 kg, Radius of Titan: 2.574 x 106 m. The sample will have a mass of 0.1 kg, and the rocket that will return it will have a mass of 200 kg (without the fuel). Your engine can fire with 18,800 N.
- What is the gravitational acceleration on Titan in m/s2?
- What will be the weight of the rocket in Newtons on Titan?
- What velocity must the rocket reach in order to escape Titan?
- How long would it take the engine to accelerate the rocket to escape velocity? (this assumes that the engine is accelerating the rocket only; we aren’t including the mass of the fuel)
Using the information given (and what you figured out) use the following formula to find the total ∆v that your rocket can produce.
- Is the ∆v enough to get from 0 m/s to escape velocity?
- If it isn’t, plug in the escape velocity for ∆v and solve for I (you leave the ln(m0/mf) the same). What is the minimum specific impulse you need to get off Titan?

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