A possible means of space flight is to place a perfectly reflecting aluminized sheet into orbit around the Earth and then use the light from the Sun to push this "solar sail." Suppose a sail of area A = 6.80 ✕ 105 m2 and mass m = 5,100 kg is placed in orbit facing the Sun. Ignore all gravitational effects and assume a solar intensity of 1,370 W/m2.
(a) What force (in N) is exerted on the sail? (Enter the magnitude.) _________N
(b) What is the sail's acceleration? (Enter the magnitude in µm/s2.)__________ µm/s2
(c) Assuming the acceleration calculated in part (b) remains constant, find the time interval (in days) required for the sail to reach the Moon, 3.84 ✕ 108 m away, starting from rest at the Earth. _________ days
(d) What If? If the solar sail were initially in Earth orbit at an altitude of 260 km, show that a sail of this mass density could not escape Earth's gravitational pull regardless of size. (Calculate the magnitude of the gravitational field in m/s2.) ___________m/s2
(e) What would the mass density (in kg/m2) of the solar sail have to be for the solar sail to attain the same initial acceleration as that in part (b)? __________kg/m2