The purpose of this research is to model and understand the deployment dynamics of space systems with long and short tethers. This research is divided into two parts; in the first part, a model for short and medium length tether systems is developed and simulated by solving equations of motion. A detailed parametric study is conducted after identifying important parameters affecting the deployment and studying the effect of each parameter on the deployment performance. Certain tools are developed to assist mission planners in predicting the deployment performance of a space tether system for a given set of parameters. The second part of the research is motivated by Space Elevator (SE) dynamics. SE is a futuristic and highly challenging technology based on the idea of connecting Earth and Space by an approximately 100,000 km long tether. The tether used for the SE would be deployed from Geostationary Orbit(GEO). With this motivation, the short tether analysis from the previous section is extended to the analysis of long tethers. A model for long tether deployment is developed and governing equations of motions are formulated. Critical parameters are identified and problems involved in SE deployment are investigated. Tether mass is initially included in the model, but it is found that that the mass of the tether has very little effect on the overall qualitative dynamics of the system. Hence, for further analysis, a massless tether model is adapted. Upon simulating the system, it is found that long tethers can be highly unstable during deployment and can crash onto the Earth. However, a considerable fraction of the tether can be deployed successfully without any external control mechanism before the instability manifests itself. Hence, alternate SE designs with shorter tether deployment requirements may be a possibility.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-06202007-100101 |
| Date | 08 August 2007 |
| Creators | Mantri, Parag |
| Contributors | Dr. James Selgrade, Dr. Larry Silverberg, Dr. Greg Buckner, Dr. Andre Mazzoleni |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-06202007-100101/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dis sertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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