Moon & Mars Orbiting Spinning Tether Transport - Tethers Unlimited

Appendix L: Tether Boost Facility Design Final Report1 SCOPE1.1 PurposeThe Moon-Mars Orbiting Spinning Tether Transport (MMOSTT) project is adesign study funded by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) and led byPrincipal Investigator Dr. Rob Hoyt of Tethers Unlimited, Inc. The purpose of thestudy is to define a space transportation system that uses a spinning tether facility inorbit about the Earth to boost payloads from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to higher orbits orto Earth escape. The tether facility consists of the tether, a control station, and agrapple assembly. The control station controls the tether and tether dynamics. Thegrapple assembly captures and releases payloads. Other major components of theMMOSTT objective system are the ground station and the payload accommodationassembly. The latter provides the interface between the payload and the grappleassembly.1.2 Scope of TextThis document describes results of engineering design and analysis conductedby the Boeing Company, a subcontractor to Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (TUI), throughPhase 2 of the MMOSTT contract. The scope of this work covers design andanalysis of the Tether Control Station (CS). Section 2 of this document describes keyassumptions and design drivers for the overall CS. Section 3 describes each majorsubsystem of the CS. For each major subsystem, the text describes keyrequirements and assumptions, new issues and requirements identified during Phase2 of the project, trade studies and design recommendations, and recommendedfollow-on studies. Section 4 is a summary of the current design.L-52