Mars Phoenix Lander
(Photos: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
You may have heard in the news about the Phoenix lander which just landed near the North Pole of Mars this past Sunday afternoon (Pacific time on Earth). The Phoenix has sent us never-before-seen images of the surface of Mars near its North Pole.
As a warmup problem, we want to find out the following information:
1. For Bow: If the speed of light is ~3E08 m/s, how many minutes will it take radio signals from the Mars Phoenix lander to reach Earth? The lander is currently 171 million miles away from Earth.
2. For Polly: If the Mars Phoenix lander traveled 420 million miles to get to Mars from Earth, and it traveled at 45,000 miles per hour, how many days or months (as appropriate) did it take the lander to travel to Mars?
3. For Bow: What if the Mars Phoenix lander were able to fly straight from the Earth to Mars at 45,000 miles per hour without having to take any “slingshot” orbital paths (i.e. it only travels 171 million miles), how long would it take the lander to travel to Mars?
Post your solution as a comment to this post.
Here is a view of Mars’ North Pole from May 19th, 2008. Click on the image for an article that shows a cool animation!
(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/MSSS )
The speed of light = 299 792 458 m / s.
the signal should reach earth 15 minutes after it is sent
It would take less than a second for radio signals to be sent.
Using real speed of light: 0.9179611313 seconds.
Using estimate: about 0.91732608
Tim
This is Donel/Jacob’s answer:
0.570394603 seconds
it would be ABOUT 0.6 seconds
more accurate would be like .54847…….
A little less than a second, about .9.
(273 588 480 000 m) / (3E8 (m / s)) = 15.19936 minutes
EDITTTT!!!
15 Minutes about
Got the same as Jordan about 15 minutes
Woops, I mean 15.2833333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333∞ minutes
1.09 sзсоиds. I think…
Sorry, dashboard unit converter cut off some digits.
It would take a little over 15 minutes and 17 seconds
Using real speed of light=917.9611316306 seconds=15.29935219384 minutes.
Using estimate=917.32608 seconds=15.288768 minutes
Tim
15 minutes about
about 15 minutes. This is Autum’s and Dominic’s comment
I got about 13 months (420 000 000 mi / 45 000 mi/hr / 24 / 30 = 12.962962… months)
12.9, aka 13 months. The first person to accuse me of cheating will be unhappy they did.
~Nat
First you take (42000000 mi) and “X” by (45000 mi/h). Then you divide that answer by 24 hours, which will give you about 389 days. Now you take that number and divide it by the number of days in a month (aprox: 30), and you will get about 13 months. If this data is faulty, then let me know.
After doing the equations I got an answer of about 13 months
I got 12.9 months, or 388 days, or 9,333 hours
It took about 13 months for the lander to get there
It should be around 13 months
[45,000mph*24hrs=1,080,000m/days]
[420,000,000/1,080,000=388.8 days or about 13 months]
Frankie And Peter
45,000 mph*24hrs=1,080,000m/days
420,000,000/1,080,000
= 388.8 days or about 13 months
After doing the equation I got 13 months. I did this by dividing 420000000 miles by 45000 mph and got about 9333 hours. I then divided 9333 hours by 24 hours to get days and got 388 days. I then divided 388 days by 30 days to get months and got about 13 months. That is how I got my answer.
you divide 420 million by 45000
you get 9333
then divide by 24
you get 388
then divide by 30
and the answer is 13
it takes 13 months
WOOOHOOO
i figured it out
*does victory dance*
420,000,000/45,000=9,333 hours, 388 days, 13 months.
it would take 388.7 days and that is about 12 to 13 months
45,0008*24hours=1,080,000m/days
420,000,000/1,080,000
first convert the number of miles (171000000ml) to meters (275,310,000,000m)
then divide 275,310,000,000m by 300000000 and you will get 917.7s
then take 917.7 and dived by 60 and you will get 15.29min
wich is how long it will take for a radio signal to reach mars from earth
If the Mars Phoenix lander traveled 420 million miles to get to Mars from Earth, and it traveled at 45,000 miles per hour, how many days or months (as appropriate) did it take the lander to travel to Mars?
(45,000*24hrs = 1,080,000 m/days)
(420,000,000/1,080,000 = 388.8 days -OR- 12.9 months
EST. ~ 13 months
It wll take about 13 months for the lander to reach mars.
Time=420000000/45000/24/30=12.9 months
it will take about 13 months to reach mars.
It would take 13 months.
1st step took “420 000 000 / 45 000 = 9 333.33333″
step two “9333.33333 / 24 = 388.888889″
step 3 “388.888889 / 30 = 12.962963″
answer= 12.962963 round to
13-ish days
13 months
time=dist speed
mouths/around 13
420000000/45000/24/30= 12.9
it will take around 13 mouths
Jonathan, I’m dancing a victory dance too!
Justus, I really like the way you showed your steps. Curtis, you too. Jasmine, your solution is really clear. I think 13 months is a pretty good estimate. I wonder what NASA says?
divide 420,000,000 by 45,000.
you will get 9,333 (number of hours) divide that by 24 and you will get 389
take your number of days (389) and divide by 30 and you will get 12.9
which is the number of months it took the lander to get to mars
It took about 13 months for the lander to land
Convert 300 million m/s to mi/min. With a simple unit conversion, this turns out to be 11,187,060 mi/min. Then you divide by the distance, 171 million, and that is the answer. It would take 15 minutes for the radio waves to get to Earth.
For a radio signal from Mars to reach Earth, it should take approximately 15 minutes to reach us. We got this by dividing 300 million meters/second by 1609 miles/meters. This then equaled 186451 mi/s which you would multiply by 60s/min. We then get 11,187,060 mi/min which we would divide by 171 million (the number of miles from Mars to Earth) and we would get the answer 15.3. Rounding, it takes about 15 minutes for a radio signal to reach Earth from Mars.
The SPEED OF LIGHT
It would take 5.2 months.
Time= distance/speed.
Distance= 171 million miles.
Time= 45,000 mi/hr
Time=171 million miles/45,000 mi/hr.
Time= 5.2 months= 158 days= 3800 hours.
Second warmup for Bow: about 158 days, or 3800 hours. 171,000,000m/45,000mph=3800 hours.
I believe that my answer for the first question is about 15 minutes.
It would take about 158 days (theoretically)
For the Mars Phoenix Lander to reach Mars from Earth as it travels 45,000 miles/hour and it is 171 million miles to the moon it would take 3,800 hours or 158 days, or 5 months. TO get this you would divide the miles (171 million) by the speed (45,000 miles/hour) then you would get the hours. Dividing the answer (3800) by the hours per day (24) then you would get 158 days. Finally you would divide 158 days by the days per month (30) to get the answer; 5 months to get from Earth to Mars.
For the second question it would probably be about this equation.
time=distance/speed
distance equals 171 million miles away
time would be 45,000 mph
so the answer would be 3800 hours
or 158 or 5.2 months
It would take 3800 hours.
3800 hours/24 hours = 158 days.
158 days/12 is about 4 months and 2 days.
d/s= convert (171000000ml) to meters (275,310,000,000m)
divide 275,310,000,000m by 300000000 = 917.7s/ 60 =
15.29min that is the answer to find out how long
it will take for a radio signal to reach mars from earth
171000000 million miles divided by 45000 miles/hour=3800 hours
then you divide what you got by 24 hours per day =158.33 days
then divide that by 30 hours per month=5.27months
About 4 months and 2 days, my answer was basically the same as Donel’s
because time = distance divided by speed…
Aproximately 158 days (rounded up) or 3800 hours.
so that would be 4 months and 4 days
171 000 000 / 45 000 = 3800
I got 5 months and 6 days. 171,000,000/4500=3800 hours then I converted it to months and days.