Tethered Artificial Gravity Spacecraft (TAGS)

ORBITEC, working in cooperation with The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), and others, proposes to develop a low-cost, tethered artificial gravity spacecraft system that can be launched from the STS in a hitchhiker GAS Can or expendible launch vehicle. This variable-gravity platform would be used by scientific researchers of the Texas and Wisconsin Space Grant Consortia as well as college students of Space Grant consortia. This program would allow specific scientific experiments to be flown as part of scientific research and outreach to the public. The Phase I effort involves: Defining the TAG Spacecraft System Requirements and capabilities; conducting deployment/recovery dynamics analysis; evaluation of the launch and operating loads; performing preliminary spacecraft system design specification/definition and analysis required to meet the system requirements; conducting testing of critical subsystem components, a cost analysis, defining the Phase III preliminary design; and establishing a plan for user/outreach program for experiments/payloads. Phase II of this STTR program will culminate in a flight of a model spacecraft in a non-ejected Get-Away-Special (GAS) Canister on the Space Shuttle. It will be operated under the aegis of the Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC). TSGC has such a GAS-CAN that it has agreed to make available to the program. Phase III will involve building and flying the TAGS.