Method to maintain artificial gravity during transfer maneuvers for tethered spacecraft

Abstract

Artificial gravity has long been proposed to limit the harmful effects of the micro-gravity environment on human crews during mission to Mars. A tethered spacecraft spinning at 4rpm (to avoid motion sickness) provides an attractive configuration. However, if the spacecraft is required to spin down for impulsive maneuvers and then spin up for interplanetary travel, the propellant cost may be unacceptably high. This paper proposes a maneuver that is performed while the spacecraft is spinning thus avoiding additional spin-down and spin-up maneuvers. A control law is provided to achieve the required ΔV while maintaining spin rate. A hypothetical human mission from Earth to Mars is analyzed using the new maneuver which, in this example, may save over 700kg of propellant.