Survival Probability of Double Strand Tether with Knots against Orbital Debris Impacts
- Paper number
IAC-06-C2.6.02
- Author
Prof. Toshiya Hanada, Kyushu University, Japan
- Coauthor
Dr. Hiroshi Hirayama, Kyushu University, Japan
- Year
2006
- Abstract
This paper introduces a new technique to evaluate the survival probability of a double strand tether with knots against orbital debris impacts. The server process of a loop (i.e., the tether portion included between two knots) can be considered as a status transition process to be described by a set of simultaneous differential equations in terms of probabilistic status variables with status transition rates. Unlike the previous techniques, the new technique enables us to account for the probability that two tether strands in a loop can be severed together with a single impact and then to investigate the dependence of the clearance between the two tether strands in the loop on the survival probability. This paper also provides some results obtained by applying the new technique to a micro tether satellite named QTEX being developed at Kyushu University and to some test cases of an Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordinate Commitee's action item entitled "Benefits and Risks of Using Electrodynamic Tethers to De-orbit Spacecraft."
- Abstract document