Action Reaction And Momentum Conservation -

One by one, they hurled the batteries into the dark. Each throw was a tiny act of Newtonian violence. The ship responded instantly—a micro-jerk, a twitch. By the fourth battery, the rotation slowed. By the sixth, the gyros read zero spin. The Ulysses was now moving on a clean, sideways drift, clear of the meteor swarm.

“Explain.”

“The rotor is stuck. But if we blow the hatch, the rotor’s outer casing will shear. One half will eject out the port side. The other half will stay with us.” action reaction and momentum conservation

“We need a second push,” she said. “Conservation of momentum requires that the total momentum of an isolated system remains constant. We’re the system. We have to throw something else.”

On the command deck, the trajectory plot updated. The ship’s vector line bent away from the red swarm. It was working. One by one, they hurled the batteries into the dark

She ordered the crew to the forward cargo lock. Six of them, in suits, grunting and sweating in zero-G, unbolted the batteries one by one. Each battery was a chunk of potential momentum.

“Go!”

BAMM-THUMM.