Question

An astronaut comes loose while outside the spacecraft and finds himself floating away from the spacecraft with only a big bag of tools. In desperation, the astronaut throws his bag of tools in the direction of his motion (away from the space station). The astronaut has a mass of 102 kg and the bag of tools has a mass of 10.0 kg. If the astronaut is moving away from the space station at 1.20 m/s initially, what is the minimum final speed of the bag of tools (with respect to the space station) that will keep the astronaut from drifting away forever?

Answer 1

I wonder how the astronaut is going to throw the tools without starting to spin like a top?

action = reaction
toolmass*V=102*1.20