The Zero Gravity Research Facility at the NASA Glenn Research Center includes a 145 m drop tower. This is an evacuated vertical tower through which, among other possibilities, a 1 m diameter sphere containing an experimental package can be dropped.

(a) How long is the sphere in free fall?

(b) What is its speed just as it reaches a catching device at the bottom of the tower?

(c) When caught, the sphere experiences an average deceleration of 255 as its speed is reduced to zero. Through what distance does it travel during the deceleration?