Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The objective of this experimental program is to design and build a turning air bearing table capable to test the mechanical behaviour of an electrodynamic tether system and the system response to the control actions in a simulated space environment. This highly focused experimental program will lead to innovation in the fundamentals of libration dynamics and control of electrodynamic tether systems, validation of the tether deployment system design, the tether libration dynamics model and control methodology. It will shed light on on many complex and unknown phenomena observed in space tethered systems. Electrodynamic tethers are an innovative approach to generating propulsion and electricity onboard spacecraft without using propellant. Over the past five decades, 12 out of 26 orbital and suborbital tether missions flew with electrodynamic tethers. Many of them failed prematurely due to ENGINEERING problems. The critical engineering problems encountered by an electrodynamic tether system include: (a) the dynamics of tether deployment by the gravity gradient in orbit, (b) the dynamic response of the tether subject to the time-varying perturbations of gravity and Lorentz forces, and (c) the robustness of stabilization control methodology. Because it is cost prohibitive to test these problems in space, the proposed ground-test facility will provide a cost-effective testbed in a simulated space environment. It will help in providing insights into the dynamics and control of the electrodynamic tether systems in order to discover some fundamental issues which may be overlooked by existing theories. The proposed equipment will train HQP in experiment design, advanced measurements and instruments.