Posted on 08/27/2004 6:26:48 PM PDT by KevinDavis
Here's a site with some interesting technical papers: www.tethers.com
There are some very interesting things that could be done with tethers: propulsion, deorbiting debris, throwing satellites into higher orbits or to the moon/Mars, and of course, space elevators.
As a tether passes through the earth's magnetic field it gathers ions, simultaneously generating a thrust vector normal to the tether, slowing the satellite it's attached to. Think about how electric motors work. This thrust vector could be used to deorbit old satellites & space junk.
If a current (provided by solar panels) is applied to the tether it will generate a thrust vector in the other direction, speeding the satellite up. This could be used to boost a satellite to a higher orbit. The neat thing about this kind of propulsion is that you don't have to worry about running out of fuel- as long as your solar panels keep working you will continue to have propulsion.
Check out the papers at www.tethers.com if you want it explained better.
And you wouldn't want to get stuck on the Space Elevator, either!;)
It would have to be near the equator, hopefully a sparsley populated area.... I guess we should name it the Clarke Elevator and build it on a small island south of Sri Lanka, where he resides.
Actually some people have worked out that you could actually build a tapered elevator much further north or south of the equator. You might could put one right in at cape canaveral.
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