In space, a space-ship of 2500 kg is attempting to carry out a docking maneuver with its mother-ship of 4300 kg. The space ship is approaching at 15m/s while the mother-ship is moving away from the space ship at around 4.7 m/s both with respect to an astronaut which is observing the maneuver from a distant space station.
i) Determine what will be the speed of the space ship/mother-ship combination after the docking maneuver is done?
ii) When the interaction takes 1.4 seconds, compute the average force which each ship feels throughout the maneuver.
iii) Determine how much kinetic energy is lost to heat and other forms in this maneuver?