Mathematical modeling and analysis of motion of a low-orbital space tether system

The paper analyzes the motion of a low-orbital space tether system, which consists of a main spacecraft and a sub-spacecraft connected by a tether. The total tether length is several ten kilometers. We considered deployment phase, the free motion phase and the stabilization motion phase on a low and nearly circular orbit. In the stabilization motion phase the orbital altitude of the system is kept in a given range by a corrective thruster. The corrective thruster is located on the main spacecraft. The simulation for all motion phases of the system is based on a mathematical model with distributed parameters, in which the tether is considered as a sequence of point masses with one-sided elastic mechanical coupling.