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APPLICATION OF THE TERMINATOR TETHER™ ELECTRODYNAMIC DRAG TECHNOLOGY TO THE DEORBIT OF CONSTELLATION SPACECRAFT

The Terminator TetherTM is a small, lightweight system that will use passive electrodynamic tether drag to rapidly deorbit spacecraft from low Earth orbit. Studies of the application of electrodynamic drag to the deorbit of constellation satellites indicates that the Terminator TetherTM offers significant mass savings compared to conventional rocket-based deorbit systems. Moreover, because it uses passive electrodynamic drag to achieve deorbit, i t can deorbit the spacecraft even if the host has lost power and control functions. Numerical analyses of the performance of the Terminator TetherTM indicate that a 5 to 10 km long conducting tether weighing only 2% of the host spacecraft mass can deorbit a typical constellation satellite within a few months. Although the tether increases the total collision cross-sectional area of the satellite system during the deorbit phase, the electrodynamic drag is so many times greater than atmospheric drag at constellation altitudes that the tether can reduce the collisional Area-Time product for the satellite by several orders of magnitude. The Terminator TetherTM thus can provide a low-cost and reliable method of mitigating the growth of debris in valuable constellation orbits.