Transportation

Abstract

A summary of tether transportation is given. Four steps were used over a period of time. First, theoretical engineering feasibility and technology requirements were determined. Then the survivors of that effort went into step two in the analysis of promising candidates. Those survivors went into the third phase which is engineering design and cost benefits. Survivors entered into the demonstration mission definition phase. Transportation studies have covered two kinds of deployments. First, steady state deployment was studied. Like the TSS, it's nearly vertical. It takes a long time to deploy and involves relatively high tether tension. Secondly, dynamic deployment was studied. Deployment started in an almost horizontal direction under a very shallow angle which allows a high deployment rate under very low tension. Momentum transfer here occurs by libration. Specific payloads were used to study tethered transportation benefits. Four transportation concepts were studied with regard to cost benefits. A tethered orbiter deboost from the space station, an OTV boost up from the Space Station, a science platform on a tether with a possible micro-g lab moving in between platform and station, and a tethered boost of payloads fromthe orbiter are the four concepts. These benefits are examined in detail.