A study of the re-entry orbit discrepancy involving tethered satellites

摘要

This paper describes an investigation of the motion of objects in near-Earth orbit that have a high probability of being identified as re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. In the case of two or more satellites tethered together, each object's motion deviates from the traditional Keplerian-like motion of a single untethered body, due to the tension force in the tether. Consequently, classical identification and motion prediction techniques applied to a tethered object may produce results that indicate that the object is on course to re-enter when it actually is not, or vice-versa. In this study the factors that cause tethered bodies to behave differently than expected, and how significant these factors must be to cause a discrepancy regarding re-entry, are determined. A candidate re-entry identification methodology based on this foundation is then formulated.