RT Journal Article
T1 Optimal design and deorbiting performance of thermionic tethers in geostationary transfer orbits
A1 Sánchez Arriaga, Gonzalo
A1 Chen, Xin
A1 Lorenzini, Enrico C.
AB The application of a recent concept, a thermionic bare tether (that is, a long conductor coated with a thermionic material), to a practical engineering problem (deorbit space debris from geostationary transfer orbit) is presented. Lorentz drag on a thermionic bare tether, during each pass through an arc close to the perigee, lowers the apogee progressively and produces the object reentry. The performance of a spacecraft equipped with a thermionic bare tether is studied at two different levels, using models that couple thermal and electrical effects. In first place, a simple formula for the eccentricity decrement produced during each perigee pass as a function of TBT properties is derived and used to select TBT optimal dimensions. For a given tether mass, the formula shows that long tethers with small cross-section areas, but large enough to accomplish mechanical constraints, yield the best performance. Second, full numerical simulations of the deorbit maneuver including Lorentz force, air drag, and J2 perturbations are carried out. A spinning thermionic bare tether with a mass of about 16kg, as well as a length, width, and thickness equal to 6 km, 2 cm, and 50 mu m, respectively, passively deorbits a half-ton spacecraft (with a natural deorbit time of about 50 years) in less than six months, without using propellant, expellant, or power supply. The important roles played by the eclipses and the Earth's oblateness on thermionic bare tether performance are highlighted.
PB American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
SN 0748-4658
YR 2017
FD 2017-03-01
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10016/32162
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10016/32162
LA eng
NO This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain (grant no. RYC-2014-15357).
DS e-Archivo
RD 28 abr. 2024