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Tether tech - A space railroad
« on: 2003-06-24 14:42:59 » |
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"A Tether System rotates like a giant sling, swinging down and picking up spacecraft launched into low orbits and then tossing them to higher orbits or even tossing them to other planets."
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/tether_tech_030618-1.html
Tether Technology: A New Spin on Space Propulsion
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
18 June 2003
NASA is putting money into Momentum-eXchange/Electrodynamic Reboost tether technology -- MXER for short -- an innovative concept that if implemented would station miles and miles of cart-wheeling cable in orbit around the Earth. Then, rotating like a giant sling, the cable would swoop down and pick up spacecraft in low orbits, then hurl them to higher orbits or even lob them onward to other planets.
MXER is part space technology, part celestial square dancing - the ultimate dos-à-dos swing machine. The hope is to harness momentum while dramatically lowering the cost of launching space missions.
Working on the railroad
Last month, NASA picked over a dozen industry, government and academic groups to tackle novel propulsion ideas that could transform exploration and scientific study of the solar system.
Under the auspices of the In-Space Propulsion (ISP) Program, NASA is footing the bill on five research areas: aerocapture; advanced chemical propulsion; solar electric propulsion; solar sail technologies; and space-based tether propulsion. The program is managed in the Office of Space Sciences at NASA Headquarters.
"The MXER Tether System will serve as a fully-reusable transportation hub in orbit. It's like a 'space railroad'," said Robert Hoyt, President and Chief Scientist for Tethers Unlimited, Inc./ScienceOps. TUI was awarded funds to look into a MXER tether system based on deployment of a 62-mile (100-kilometer) long cable in orbit around the Earth.
A tether pick-up service for Earth-launched payloads offers cost-cutting pluses.
By eliminating the need to launch an upper-stage rocket along with each satellite, Hoyt said that the MXER Tether System means satellites can be boosted into space atop smaller, less expensive rockets. Propulsion costs for space missions would drop by a factor of ten or more, he said.
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Here is a related tether experiment:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_tether_020306-1.html
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