Reference no: EM132719151

ME 51500 Orbital Mechanics - City College of New York

Design Project

To date, all satellites sent into space have been launched on chemical rockets which are inherently dangerous and costly. An idea was conceived in the 1960's for the construction of a "space elevator" which would provide safer and easier access to space. The enormous cost of such a project has hindered its development. However it would be a one-time cost which could be shared by a number of nations and be spread over a number of decades, and so, one day, may become reality.

Consider the following facts1:

• A satellite hoisted up and released from a rigid 22,300 mile high tower at the equator would automatically enter geosynchronous orbit. At altitudes within the range of 16,100 to 32,000 miles, the satellite would enter an elliptic orbit. At altitudes above 32,000 miles, the satellite would achieve escape velocity.

• If a tower were constructed higher than geosynchronous altitude, the material above this altitude would experience a centrifugal force exceeding the gravitational force. Thus the taller the tower, the less it would weigh! A tower of uniform cross-section exceeding 100,000 miles would weigh nothing at all! This suggests that if a cable were suspended within the tower, and the tower were removed, the cable would be in tension throughout and continue to stand!

Your project is to design a procedure for deployment of a thin seed cable which would then be used to hoist up strands of a heavier cable which would make up the track of the space elevator. Should the seed cable be deployed from the ground up or from the sky down and how? Start by considering all possible ways of deployment you can think of or find in the literature. Using your knowledge of orbital mechanics, your paper should include a discussion of anticipated difficulties using each approach and how they might be overcome. Make your final design selection by considering ease of execution, likelihood of success and cost. Your final method for deployment of the seed cable must be verified by computer simulation. You may use (but are not limited to) the following software: Matlab, STK, GMAT and Working Model. Your report should be typewritten and contain the following:

1) Title Page
2) Abstract - A one paragraph summary of the report, including key results and conclusions.
3) Introduction
4) Design Method - Present all the different approaches you considered for deployment of the seed cable and reasoning for selecting the procedure you chose.
5) Computer Simulation- Develop a computer simulation using appropriate software to demonstrate that the deployment sequence you chose will work.
6) Results and Analysis - Include printed output from whatever software you are using for your simulation and discuss your results.
7) Conclusions - Conclude by summarizing your design methodology and comment on whether you have achieved your design objective.
8) References
9) Appendix - Attach a listing of any computer programs used in performing calculations.

Attachment:- Orbital Mechanics.rar