[meteorite-list] Somewhat OT: meteoroids damaging/destroying man-made satellites

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:01:36 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86901B4E210_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi again,

Found a reference to the severed tether experiment I mentioned earlier
today:

"The second SEDS mission used a tether consisting of a single cylindrical
braided
line with a diameter of 0.8 mm and a length of 20 km. This tether was cut by
a
debris or meteoroid impactor roughly 4 days after deployment. In the TSS-2
mission, the conducting-core tether was severed by a high-voltage arc caused
by a defect in the electrical insulation, resulting in loss of the tether
and
the Italian satellite. Clearly, for a tethered system to complete a
many-year
mission, or for a crewed tether experiment to operate with an acceptable
safety
factor, a tether structure with built-in redundancy is required."

--Rob
Received on Fri 28 Jun 2002 07:30:20 PM PDT