Abstract
A Shuttle-borne tethered satellite has the potential of contributing significantly to the scientific versatility of the Shuttle Orbiter, that will be launched by NASA in the early '80s. If the Shuttle is in a 200 km orbit, the use of a 100 km tether connected to the Shuttle at one end and to the satellite at the other makes the performance of various relevant electromagnetic measurements in the magnetosphere possible. The tethered satellite (a subsatellite) can also be lowered from the Shuttle down to heights in the vicinity of 100 km, to an altitude band that has great importance from the standpoint of both upper atmospheric experimentation and gravity-gradient measurements. From a preliminary analysis, we find that one of the major problem areas of the system — the heating of the wire and of the subsatellite due to air drag — can be solved within the present state of the art in wire technology and heat shielding. System masses are also reasonable: In fact, a system with a 100 km wire and a Shuttle-borne reel, tethering a 100 kg subsatellite, would have a mass no larger than 120 kg.
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