AAS 97-601
EXPERIMENTS IN TETHER DYNAMICS PLANNED FOR ATEX'S FLIGHT
M.F. Zedd - Naval Research Laboratory
Abstract
The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) plans to fly its second tether experiment, called ATEx, in the first half of calendar 1998. ATEx stands for Advanced Tether Experiment. The tether system is a simple gravity-gradient dynamics and survivability research experiment. Major program objectives include adding to the tether community's understanding of deployment dynamics and control via a constant-speed motor, in- and out-of-orbit plane libration control via thrusters to excite and damp librations, and investigating the survivability of long-life tether materials. This paper will describe the ATEx payload on top the STEX spacecraft and preview the anticipated flight experiments as shown by the results of various dynamics simulations.