Conference 7.286::space

94.0. "Future Shuttle Experiments" by GWEN::AUGERI () Wed Oct 30 1985 13:59

I got this from the USENET this morning and thought you'd be interested.

	Mike
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From:	net.astro 25-OCT-1985 06:00
To:	@[.net.astro]NEWS.DIS
Subj:	StarDate: October 25 Tethered Satellites

Posted by: decwrl!greipa!pesnta!amd!amdcad!amdimage!prls!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!mordor!ut-sally!utastro!dipper
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
 
The shuttle may soon fly with satellites tethered to it.  More -- after
this.
 
October 25  Tethered Satellites
 
A few years from now a NASA shuttle will deploy a tethered satellite --
one that stays attached to the shuttle.  The satellite will move
upwards from the orbiter -- towards an orbit farther away from the
Earth's surface.
 
The satellite will be anchored to the shuttle by an insulated wire of
braided copper and stainless steel -- which can stretch out as far as
twelve miles.  As the wire moves across the magnetic fields surrounding
the Earth, it will generate an electrical current.
 
How much voltage the tether generates depends upon several factors --
the configuration of the orbit, the strength of the Earth's magnetic
field, and the angle at which the tether crosses the magnetic lines of
force.  Scientists estimate that in the initial test of the tethered
satellite, it can extract enough electricity to burn fifty l00-watt
bulbs.  That's energy production from orbital motion -- possibly a
prime source of power for satellites in the future.
 
The first test of a tether system is scheduled to fly aboard a shuttle
in l988 as a joint project of NASA and Italy's National Space Plan
Office.  The Italian-built satellite will fly tethered for more than
thirty hours before shuttle astronauts reel it back in.
 
A different tether project slated for a later shuttle flight will send
a satellite not up above the shuttle -- but sixty miles down into the
Earth's atmosphere.  This tether -- made of a tough plastic called
Kelvar -- won't generate electricity.  Instead the Kelvar tether will
be a prototype for a project to take vertical soundings of our
atmosphere -- measurements of the atmosphere at several different
levels simultaneously.
 
Script by Diana Hadley.
(c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin