Chapter 5, Problem 76GP

Deep Space 1 The NASA spacecraft Deep Space 1 was shut down on December 18, 2001, following a three-year journey to the asteroid Braille and the comet Borrelly. This spacecraft used a solar-powered ion engine to produce 0.021 pounds of thrust (force) by stripping electrons from xenon atoms and accelerating the resulting ions to 70,000 mi/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 7900 mi/h. What was the mass of Deep Space 1? (Assume that the mass of the xenon gas is negligible.)