AAS 98-105

ON THE DEPLOYMENT OF AN ELECTRODYNAMIC TETHER FROM AN ELLIPTICAL ORBIT

M. Ruiz, J. Pelaez - Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain

Abstract

A two-phase deployment scheme allows a long tether to be deployed from a circular LEO in less than one period. Through a perturbation method, PDE's become ODE's allowing phase-plane study to achieve a local vertical final figure. With two or even one term, the method is nearly as accurate as finite differences or lumped-mass methods, and much faster. In an elliptical orbit, the method allows a wide exploration of parameters: eccentricity, initial anomaly, ejection angle and exponential speed ratio. Ranges are identified to obtain the straight vertical figure, avoid slackness, rotation, resonances, and high sensitivity to initial conditions.

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