Space Tethers and Space Elevators
Michel van Pelt
Language: English
Pages: 215
ISBN: 0387765557
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Michel van Pelt explains for the first time the principle of space tethers: what they are and how they can be used in space. He introduces non-technical space enthusiasts to the various possibilities and feasibility of space tethers including the technological challenges and potential benefits. He illustrates how, because of their inherent simplicity, space tethers have the potential to make space travel much cheaper, while ongoing advances in tether material technology may make even seemingly far-fetched ideas a reality in the not too distant future.
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way to lower launch costs is to reuse rockets. Instead of having to pay for a completely new one every time we need to put up a spacecraft, we would then only need to pay for the propellants, operations, and maintenance of the launch vehicle, such as with an airplane. Planes are not thrown away after each flight. The reason that expendable rockets are still the norm is that we have not had much success developing reusable systems. To make a launch vehicle capable of being used again, it needs
the university. However, just as he had done before, he educated himself in the library, and managed to get a job as a mathematics teacher in the town of Kaloega in 1882. Even as a child, Tsiolkovsky had been fascinated by rockets and their possibilities for the exploration of space. He understood that rockets are ideally suited for space transportation because they work according to Newton's principle of action equals reaction; in reaction to the expulsion of fast gas through its nozzle, a
network. Each spacecraft also had a radio communications link with the ground. The two picosats were connected by a 30-meter (100-foot) tether to ensure that they would stay close to each other (formation flying), which was necessary to test the micropower radio system that let the two satellites communicate with each other. In addition, the tether contained thin strands of gold wire that reflected radar signals, so that the satellite set could be tracked by the powerful radar systems of U.S.
of a two-satellite configuration. A third satellite followed on STS-116, so that tests with three satellite formations could be started. However, tests of formation flying with large distances between individual spacecraft can be done only in free space, outside the space station. Stanford University and Santa Clara University have proposed Emerald, a low-cost mission for the validation of formation-flying technologies, including tethers. It was planned to be launched with the Space Shuttle in
developments need to be at least partly financed by government space organizations, because for industry the financial benefits are often too far in the future and too uncertain. In Europe the development of the Ariane series of launchers has always been financed by European governments through the European Space Agency (ESA). Only after a successful qualification launch does the commercial operator Arianespace take over, and even then it does not need to pay back the development costs.
