Session
Technical Session VII: Student Scholarship Competition
Abstract
Two ten centimeter cube micro-satellites will be built at the W.R.Woolrich Laboratories at the University of Texas at Austin for the purpose of providing visual data regarding the changing density of the Earth’s atmosphere at low earth orbit altitudes, and investigating the ability of electro-dynamic tethers to change the orbital altitude of a small satellite. The cubes will be tethered together via a highly reflective Aracon fiber that will be approximately three kilometers in length. The cubes will separate after orbit deployment, placing the tether in tension. The tether will reflect sunlight as it passes over the Earth, making it visible without the use of telescopes or binoculars when the cubes are at an altitude of roughly 300 kilometers. The tether will then detach from one cube, allowing it to hang freely from the other cube. At this point, it will be subject to atmospheric drag that will cause the tether to deform. The deformation and shape of the tether are directly correlated to the atmospheric density, and although there are other forces acting on the tether, these are assumed to be well known. An internet based data recording system will be established, where observers from anywhere in the world can send visual data of the tether along with the observation time, azimuth and elevation of the satellite, and the latitude and longitude of the observer’s locations. These data will then be used to create a model of the density of the Earth’s atmosphere at low earth orbit altitude.
APTUS: Applications for Tether United Satellites
Two ten centimeter cube micro-satellites will be built at the W.R.Woolrich Laboratories at the University of Texas at Austin for the purpose of providing visual data regarding the changing density of the Earth’s atmosphere at low earth orbit altitudes, and investigating the ability of electro-dynamic tethers to change the orbital altitude of a small satellite. The cubes will be tethered together via a highly reflective Aracon fiber that will be approximately three kilometers in length. The cubes will separate after orbit deployment, placing the tether in tension. The tether will reflect sunlight as it passes over the Earth, making it visible without the use of telescopes or binoculars when the cubes are at an altitude of roughly 300 kilometers. The tether will then detach from one cube, allowing it to hang freely from the other cube. At this point, it will be subject to atmospheric drag that will cause the tether to deform. The deformation and shape of the tether are directly correlated to the atmospheric density, and although there are other forces acting on the tether, these are assumed to be well known. An internet based data recording system will be established, where observers from anywhere in the world can send visual data of the tether along with the observation time, azimuth and elevation of the satellite, and the latitude and longitude of the observer’s locations. These data will then be used to create a model of the density of the Earth’s atmosphere at low earth orbit altitude.
