Research on Orbital Plasma Electro-Dynamics (ROPE)

Abstract

This report spans activities covering approximately 13 years. This period includes both the TSS1 and 1R missions. As is well known the TSS1 mission was not successful due to the tether hanging in the reelout mechanism. This resulted in the approval of a reflight mission. TSS1-R. The reel mechanism did work on the reflight however the tether arced, burned through and flew away just as maximum length was being obtained. Thus only a few of the planned objectives were carried out. The good news is that all items delivered under this contract worked as planned. In addition the contract was completed on time and in scope with no overruns. Several publications have resulted even under these non-optimum conditions.