METHOD OF DEPLOYMENT OF A TETHERED SPACE SYSTEM ALONG THE LOCAL VERTICAL

Two bodies coupled by an elastic weightless tether in space are considered. A fundamentally new approach to solving the problem of the deployment of a tethered space system along the local vertical in a circular orbit is formulated and theoretically substantiated. This approach is based on the change-of-angular-momentum theorem. It allows programming a tether length control law that purposefully changes the angular momentum of the tether under the gravitational moment until the deployed tether is aligned with the local vertical. The deployment of a specific tether is considered as an example to demonstrate the simplicity of the approach and the way of verification of the mathematical model