Question

You are orbiting a large moon around Saturn in a 17,427kg space ship. Your ship

measures the moons mass to be 8.38x1022kg. If the ship is orbiting around the moon at
a distance of 2,035km from its center] How much gravitational force acts on the ship (in
N)?

(Use 9.8 for g)

Answer 1

The gravitational force acting on the ship, given that the mass of the space ship is 17427 Kg, is 23278.49 N

How to calculate the gravitational force acting on the ship?

The gravitational force acting on the ship can be calculated by using the Newton's universal law of gravity formula. This is shown below

The given above shows the following data:

• Mass of space ship (M₁) = 17427 Kg
• Mass of moon (M₂) = 8.38×10²² Kg
• Distance from the center of the moon (r) = 2035 Km = 2035 × 1000 = 2035000 m
• Gravitational constant (G) = 6.67×10⁻¹¹ Nm²/Kg²
• Gravitational force acting on ship (F) =?

`F = G(M_1M_2)/(r^2) \\\\F = 6.67*10^(-11)\ *\ (17427\ *\ 8.38*10^(22))/(2035000^2)\\\\F = 23278.49\ N`

Therefore the gravitational force acting on the ship is 23278.49 N