Chapter 7, Problem 88A

To determine

The Explain: The way an object is dropped down to earth from space shuttle by an astronaut.

Explanation of Solution

Introduction:

There is no gravity in space. As the thing or people go away from the earth, gravitational pull starts decreasing.

A shuttle moving in the orbit of the earth experiences a gravitational pull by the earth. To maintain a shuttle into the orbit of earth, there should be a speed of shuttle around $17500\text{ mile/hour}$ . Otherwise shuttle and everything in it would fall to the earth.

Therefore, to get an object to fall to the earth, there is a need to slow down the speed of the shuttle.

After slowing down the speed of shuttle, an object in the shuttle is thrown backward, which would continue in the same direction at a slower speed and in this way, the object would be unable to maintain an orbit of the earth. It would be moving so slow that the gravity of earth would pull it.

Conclusion:

Hence, an object can be dropped from the space shuttle by slowing down the speed of the shuttle.