High-payoff space tethers
- Paper number
IAC-06-D4.3.06
- Author
Mr. Jerome Pearson, Star Technology and Research, Inc., United States
- Coauthor
Mr. John Oldson, United States
- Year
2006
- Abstract
Potentially high-payoff applications of tethers in space were examined to identify affordable applications with high benefit/cost ratios. A top-level review of 74 promising applications was performed, in the categories of transportation, technology and test, environmental sensing, satellite constellations, electrodynamics, and gravity. From this initial qualitative review, ten top applications were selected for more detailed evaluations: maneuvering space vehicle, artificial gravity lab, ISS trash disposal, ISS reboost, lunar sling, lunar space elevators, Phobos and Deimos tethers, Mars space elevators, Near-Earth-Object (NEO) tether, and Jupiter maneuvering space vehicle. Their costs were estimated from the Spacecraft/Vehicle Level Cost Model (SVLCM) and the Advanced Missions Cost Model (AMCM), both derived from the NASA/Air Force Cost Model (NAFCOM), and from the TransCostSystems (TCS) cost methodology. The NAFCOM database includes Earth-orbit spacecraft, interplanetary spacecraft, lunar rovers, and manned habitats. The TCS method concentrates on launch vehicles. Each of these cost methods uses the system mass and complexity factors to produce estimated costs. TCS gives development, production, and operations cost; NAFCOM gives development and production costs; and AMCM gives a single overall cost estimate. To evaluate payoffs versus requirements of each application, several parameters were reviewed, including the mass, power, and construction required; the time and cost required for construction; the feasibility, design issues, and critical engineering questions, and most importantly, the throughput, capacity, operational potential, near-term applications of the technology, and the potential cost benefit. The results show that the promising systems for immediate implementation are the artificial gravity laboratory and the maneuvering space vehicle. The asteroid tether is more expensive, but has high payoff, and will lead logically to more extensive applications of long tethers. We recommend that NASA pursue the highest payoff and the easiest of these space tether applications, in the following order: the maneuvering space vehicle, the artificial gravity lab, ISS reboost, the NEO tether, and the lunar sling. These are most likely to lead high payoffs from space tethers, and would lead logically to the more difficult applications with extremely long tethers. Success in these early applications of the maneuvering space vehicle and the artificial gravity laboratory would demonstrate the high utility of in-space tethers, and open the door to their wider implementation in future NASA programs. This would give us the experience and technology base to pursue space elevators when carbon nanotubes become available.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-06-D4.3.06.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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