Hitchhiker Server Sky Test

Failed brain fart.

Testing the first server sky thinsat arrays may be challenging - they don't belong in a common orbit, they won't last long below 2000 km altitude due to ram drag. It would be nice to deploy the first tests at M288, but that will require a custom launch.

But there's a trick.

Thinsats can be tested in a highly elliptical orbit above LEO and below GEO. Deploying them as hitchhikers from a GTO bound upper stage would work - except that the perigee of the GTO orbit would be too low.

What if we used a tether? Ivan Bekey proposed sending shuttle back from the space station by lowering it on a tether, first. The combined two-mass-and-a-string system would orbit around the center of gravity, with shuttle pulled down and ISS pulled up by tides. ISS moves up, going faster than natural orbital velocity, and shuttle is slower. When the tether is released (twang!) the ISS orbit rises, and shuttle reenters with somewhat less velocity than it would otherwise. Spool the tether back into ISS, and do the same thing for the next visit. This could significantly reduce the amount of propellant needed to raise orbit.

Well, it might not really work because that would jerk ISS around, and subject it to "milligravity" that it isn't designed for. And the released tether will get frisky, might break something or even puncture a hole.

But a tether between the GTO stage and a server sky experiment package? We want to reenter the GTO stage, and raise experimental perigee. Doesn't have to be much.

Let's assume the experiment weighs 50 kg and is at the top of the tether, and the empty stage weighs 450 kg and is at the bottom. They are connected by a tether length L, and turning at rate \omega , highest at perigee, lowest at apogee where they will separate. The tidal force in orbit is 3 {\omega}^2 \Delta r , and balances around the center of mass. The experiment is going 0.9 \times L \times \omega $ faster than the center of the GTO orbit.

Oops. DOESNT WORK, because the apogee omega is so small. We have nothing to spin the pair with, either