Sometime in the Future, a Crewed Space Mission to Saturn

question 235

Multiple Choice

Sometime in the future, a crewed space mission to Saturn might place an observer in a spacecraft within Saturn's ring system. What relationship between the motions of the ring particles and the motion of the spacecraft would the observer see?

• A) All particles would be moving with the same orbital speed and would fly in formation with the spacecraft because the motions of particles and spacecraft are governed by gravity.
• B) Particles closer to the planet would overtake the spacecraft, while particles farther from the planet would be overtaken by the spacecraft, following Kepler's laws.
• C) The particles would be moving in ellipses and would therefore sometimes move ahead of the spacecraft and at other times fall behind the spacecraft, even colliding with it occasionally.
• D) Particles orbiting farther from the planet would be traveling faster and would overtake the spacecraft, while particles closer to the planet would be moving slower and would be overtaken by the spacecraft.

---

Definitions:

Commodities Market

A physical or virtual marketplace for buying, selling, and trading raw or primary products, such as metals, oil, and grains.

Annual Return

The percentage of profit or loss on an investment over a one-year period.

Interest Rate

The cost of borrowing money or the reward for saving, typically expressed as a percentage of the principal.

Entrepreneurial Innovation

The process by which an entrepreneur designs, develops, and brings to the market a novel product or service that potentially changes industry patterns or consumer habits.