Wednesday, March 2, 2016

The Math of "The Martian" Sol 83

Mark is retrieving the Pathfinder space probe in hopes of fixing it’s radio so that he can communicate with earth. He is at Pathfinder’s landing site, but he needs to get the probe onto the roof of his rover. He has removed several parts of the probe that he won’t need, but it still has a mass of 200 kg. How much would that weigh on Earth? How much would that weigh on Mars?

He has decided that the best way to get it up to the top of the rover is to use rocks to build a ramp. After some small scale experiments he has determined that the best angle for the ramp will be 30 degrees. If the rover is 2.5m tall, how long will the base of the ramp be?


If the ramp is 1m wide, and the rocks in the area have a density of 3 g/cm^3, what is the upper limit of the mass of rocks must he move to create his ramp? How much does this weigh on Mars?

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