This paper describes four potentially useful tether applications that are best suited to or even limited to small launch vehicles and their payloads. The first application uses a Small Expendable-tether Deployment System (SEDS) to deploy a 20-40 km tether which transfers momentum from the spent final stage to its payload. This de-orbits the stage and boosts the payload. The other concepts are endo-atmospheric applications specific to various kinds of boosters. In one, a large helicopter gently recovers a reusable booster while it is descending by parachute. Another improves the performance of a small single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle, by lifting it by helicopter to an altitude of about 3 kilometers before ignition. The last tows an air-breathing launch vehicle to high speed behind a supersonic aircraft, to eliminate any need for low-speed propulsion on the launch vehicle.
Some tether applications with small launch vehicles
AIAA/DARPA Meeting on Lightweight Satellite Systems ; 1987 ; Monterey, CA, United States
1988-01-01
Conference paper
No indication
English
Bootstrapping a Tether Launch Assist System
AIAA | 2003
|Vehicle evaluations for tether-assisted launch to orbit
AIAA | 2001
|Tether as upper stage for launch to orbit
AIAA | 1989
|