6 PROBLEMS4.6 Teacup Engine (Princeton, Moscow Phys-Tech)
The astronaut from Problem 1.13 i n Part I was peacefully drinking tea
at five o’clock galactic time, as was his wont, when he had an emergency
outside the shuttle, and he had to do an EVA to deal with it. Upon leaving
the ship, his jetpack failed, and nothing remained to connect him to the
shuttle.Fortunately, he had absentmindedly brought histeacup with him.
Since this was the only cup he had, he did not want to throw it away in
order to propel him back to the shuttle(besides, it was his favorite cup).
Instead, he used the sublimation of the frozen tea to propel him back to
the spaceship (see Figure P.4.6). Was it really possible? Estimate the time
it might take him to return if he is a distance m from the ship.
Assumethat thesublimationoccurs at a constanttemperature