In space..?

Question

I know its just a movie but...in this one movie this guy got to far from the space ship and they tryed to save him but he was to far so the woman hit the rockets and she went a little bit i thought in space nothing stops you? you'd keep going they could save hime because of fuel.

Answer 1

Remember, every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

I think the film you're referring to is mission to mars.

say you have 3 objects in space in a roughly straight line.

A - B - C

C is the man moving away

B is the woman with the jetpack

A is the spaceship they came from

for B to move to C in order to save him, she must use enough fuel so that she gets to him before their air runs out and then the same amount of fuel in order to stop moving towards him, overcoming the first amount of thrust.

Then she must have enough fuel to move (assuming they have equal mass) twice as much mass (her and the man) twice as much distance (from the man to the spaceship, assuming they were equal distances apart beforehand) before their air runs out.

It is entirely plausible that not enough fuel was left in order to complete this maneuvre, and thus, it would be impossible to save him.

Answer 2

I don't know the scene nor do I really understand the situation. But you are right that there is little drag to slow space ships down. Either the movie was bologna or maybe she was tethered to the ship so we go floating off either. Or maybe she couldn't reach the guy because he was going faster away than she could reach with less than half the rockets fuel. She would need half of what she spent to slow down and then some more to get back to the ship.

Answer 3

Out there it takes very little fuel to correct for such a small distance...