Space Tether

This makes it much easier to make the rocket a reusable launch vehicle rlv.

Space tether. T rex is a space tether experiment t rex promoted by the japanese aerospace exploration agency jaxa in collaboration with nasa. The tether would stretch from a spaceport at the equator to a space station in geosynchronous orbit overhead. The space tether experiment a joint venture of the us and italy called for a scientific payload a large spherical satellite to be deployed from the us space shuttle at the end of a conducting cable tether 20 km 12 5 miles long. A japanese led international team is developing a suborbital test of an electrodynamic tether which may one day enable spacecraft to maneuver in space without the use of any propellant.

Using a suborbital rocket of around 40 000 kg gross mass you could take a payload of about 4 000 kg to the end of an orbiting spinning tether. The missions have met with varying degrees of success. Possibly the most ambitious vision of the space tether is the space elevator popularized by arthur c. Centrifugal forces caused by the earth s rotation would hold the tether aloft.

Clarke where a tether is constructed that connects the ground to geosynchronous orbit. Tethers are usually made of thin strands of high strength fibers such as spectra or kevlar. A space tether is a long cable used to couple spacecraft together as they orbit the central body i e. Tethers long strands of material hold the promise of stabilizing satellites generating electricity and allowing easy transportation.

Any space tethered system is intimately connected to the gravitational force field. A few have been highly successful. So scientists are taking a new look at an experimentally test ed technology the space tether that exploits some funda mental laws of physics to provide pointing artificial gravity electrical power and thrust or drag while reducing or elimi nating the need for chemical energy sources. Because of the tether the rocket only has to provide a bit over half the delta v of going to orbit.

Space tethers are long cables which can be used for propulsion momentum exchange stabilization and attitude control or maintaining the relative positions of the components of a large dispersed satellite spacecraft sensor system. The design would permit vehicles to travel along the cable from a planetary surface such as the earth s directly into space or orbit without the use of large rockets.