Space Tether

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.

Space tether. T rex is a space tether experiment t rex promoted by the japanese aerospace exploration agency jaxa in collaboration with nasa. 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 number of space tethers have been deployed in space missions.

Tether satellites can be used for various purposes including research into tether propulsion tidal stabilisation and orbital plasma dynamics. The tether would stretch from a spaceport at the equator to a space station in geosynchronous orbit overhead. Tethers are usually made of thin strands of high strength fibers such as spectra or kevlar.

Centrifugal forces caused by the earth s rotation would hold the tether aloft. Possibly the most ambitious vision of the space tether is the space elevator popularized by arthur c. The main component would be a cable also called a tether anchored to the surface and extending into space.

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. Tethers long strands of material hold the promise of stabilizing satellites generating electricity and allowing easy transportation. A few have been highly successful.

This makes it much easier to make the rocket a reusable launch vehicle rlv. A space tether is a long cable used to couple spacecraft together as they orbit the central body i e. 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.

Any space tethered system is intimately connected to the gravitational force field. The missions have met with varying degrees of success. Because of the tether the rocket only has to provide a bit over half the delta v of going to orbit.