Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/paper-1/section-b/7/d/solution

Set the launch event to and measure toward Earth in light-years and in years, so light has coordinate slope magnitude one. Earth's worldline is , and the lander's is . The outgoing signal is and reaches Earth at . Earth's reply is sent at .
The return signal has . Its intersection with the lander gives . Both signal lines are null; the lander's worldline lies inside the light cone. The drawing exaggerates the small gap near Earth in an inset so that B, C and D remain distinguishable.
Figure 1.
Earth-frame spacetime diagram of the outgoing signal, delayed reply and lander worldline
. Details.

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