Development of a Tethered Satellite System Experiment for Creating Artificial Gravity aboard NASA’s KC-135

The Human Exploration and Development of Space will involve prolonged exposure in humans to a microgravity environment; this can lead to significant loss of bone and muscle mass, particularly for missions requiring travel times of several months or more, such as on a trip to Mars. One possible remedy for this situation is to use a spent booster as a “counter-weight” and tether it to the crew cabin for the purpose of spinning-up the counter-weight/cabin system about its common center of mass like a dumbbell, hence generating artificial gravity for the crew during long duration missions. However, much needs to be learned about the dynamics and stability of such tethered systems before they can become flight possibilities. This paper concerns a pending investigation of the dynamics involved in “spinning-up” such a system in a microgravity environment. The “spinning-up” of the system involves applying a small initial angular velocity to the tethered satellite system and then reeling in a portion of the tether length that separates the masses. Since angular momentum is conserved, and the mass moment of inertia has effectively decreased due to the shortened tether length, the angular velocity of the system will increase (this phenomenon can be seen in the increase in spin-speed that ice skaters experience as they bring their arms in close to their bodies). The “spinning-up” of a tethered satellite system is a critical period of operation, as the system is moving from a static environment to a dynamic one. Multiple digital video cameras and accelerometers will be used to record data during the spin-up process. This research proposes that the “spinning-up” of a tethered satellite can be tested and investigated aboard NASA’s KC-135 as it generates its microgravity environment. Testing in a reduced gravity environment is crucial to obtaining the required data necessary for developing a larger, more complex tethered system. We believe that typical surface simulations and experimentation do not create an accurate environment for the study of tether