Cross-verification and benchmarking analysis of electrodynamic tether simulators

Abstract

Five electrodynamic tether simulators (BETsMA v2.0, DYNATETHER, EDTSim, FLEX, and TeMPEST) have been cross-verified by running and analysing simulations of increasing complexity. A set of ten simulations without any tether was run to test the orbital propagators and the implementation of the perturbation force due to the non-sphericity of the Earth and its non-homogeneous mass distribution. The environmental models of the five codes and their implementation were then cross-verified by analysing the evolution of the magnetic field and the plasma and atmospheric densities. The electric modules of the simulators for electrodynamic tethers working in the passive mode, i.e., the routines in charge of computing the current and the voltage profiles along the tethers as well as the Lorentz force, were compared by running simulations with bare tethers. Configurations with an ideal electron emitter (zero potential drop), a real emitter, and a resistor and an ideal emitter were considered, as well as round and tape tethers. The electric models of BETsMA, EDTSim, FLEX, and TeMPEST, which assumed a straight tether, were also compared with the result of DYNATETHER for curved tethers. The consistency of the five simulators as a whole was tested by preparing performance maps with the deorbit time versus orbit inclination for a reference scenario and considering tape and round electrodynamic tethers. Although they implement different models and make different assumptions, the results of the five codes are consistent for the full simulation campaign. The simulation data and the software to visualize them are available in a public repository.