TEPCE Satellites

TEPCE
TEPCE
TEPCE
TEPCE
TEPCE
TEPCE
Satellite TEPCE
Type CubeSat
Units or mass 1.5U
Organization US Naval Research Laboratory
Institution Military
Entity type Government (Civil / Military)
Nation US
Partners U.S. Air Force
Oneliner

Joined by a 1 km tether to test electrodynamic tether propulsion.

Description

Joined by a 1 km tether to test electrodynamic tether propulsion.

Results

Jonathan McDowell reported that change in decay rate on 2020-11-17 suggests tether was deployed.

The end-masses were separated on November 15, 2019. The exposed tether increased the area for TEPCE, which resulted in a significant increase in the decay rate. The last element set published was on February 2, 2020, which was 78 days after separation of the end-masses. As seen in Fig. 39, the last few element sets exhibited marked increase in decay. The date of the last element set provided by Space-track.org was February 2, 2020, which indicated that was the date TEPCE reentered the atmosphere. The enormous drag produced by the tether shortened the life of TEPCE by some 6 years. It is well known that electrodynamics can further decelerate the orbit of a tethered satellite. Many papers have been published on the deceleration effects of electrodynamics thrusting, [9].

The communications and battery-life issues discussed in previous sections severely limited electrody-namic tether operations once TEPCE‘s tether was deployed. Nonetheless, TEPCE was able to return some interesting physical measurements. Since Stimpy was basically nonoperational after tether deployment, tests in which a bias voltage was to have been applied to its collector tape could not be conducted; in fact, the collector tape was never made part of the electrodynamic circuit.

Presentation in November 2023 shared additional details:

Sources [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Photo sources [1] [2] [3]
Keywords Tether, Propulsion

Related Spacecraft

Name Status Launcher Launch Orbit
TEPCE A (Ren, Tether Electrodynamics Propulsion CubeSat Experiment) Reentry 2020-02-01. Was operational (Report from 2022-02-28 and Jonathan McDowell reported that change in decay rate on 2020-11-17 suggests tether was deployed) Falcon Heavy 2019-06-25 300 x 800 km, 28.5 deg
TEPCE B (Stimpy, Tether Electrodynamics Propulsion CubeSat Experiment) Reentry 2020-02-01. Was operational (Report from 2022-02-28 and Jonathan McDowell reported that change in decay rate on 2020-11-17 suggests tether was deployed) Falcon Heavy 2019-06-25 300 x 800 km, 28.5 deg

Last modified: 2024-05-30

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