Star Technology and Research (STAR, Inc.) Updates Thread

[Blackjax]

Courtesy of Parabolic Arc:
NASA has awarded a $1.9 million contract to a South Carolina company for the development of the ElectroDynamic Debris Eliminator (EDDE) vehicle, which is designed to clean up the growing debris problem in low Earth orbit.

Star Technology and Research (STAR) was awarded the contract under NASA’s Game Changing Technology program. STAR President Jerome Pearson is the project’s principal investigator.

“This is a new contract that started last month and will run for 2 years,” said Joe Carroll of Tether Applications, which is partnered on the project. “The focus is maturing technologies for EDDE on the ground; we may get a flight experiment later if the work goes well.”

According to STAR PowerPoint presentations, the vehicle is “based on the use of our electrodynamic thruster for space propulsion” and has the following features:

* Small vehicles that can be launched piggyback to larger satellites
* Propellantless, reusable space vehicles with virtually unlimited delta-V using solar power and electrodynamic thrust
* Maneuverable over all of low Earth orbit at any inclination
* Reusable, each capable of removing many targets
* Compact and lightweight—just 100 kg (220 lb), packs into 0.11 m3 (4 ft3)
* Captures debris with lightweight nets or grappler
* Single EDDE could capture 136 US sun-synchronous objects (68 tons) in 3 years
* 12 EDDEs could remove all 2,565 pieces (2,166 metric tons) of LEO debris greater than 2 kg in 7 years

According to a NASA budget document, STAR is to provide the space agency “with an advanced, sub-scale tether, and complete the manufacture and functional testing of this prototype for a tether-based in-space propulsion system” during the 2013 Fiscal Year, which begins on Oct. 1.

The company previously received funding for EDDE under the U.S. Navy’s Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program. The SBIR Phase 1 study was completed in 2010.

Ever since I listened to this FISO talk about them I have thought that their tether concept could be a game changer if it got funded and proved the technology out.  I am really happy to see that this happened.

[jongoff]

Courtesy of Parabolic Arc:
NASA has awarded a $1.9 million contract to a South Carolina company for the development of the ElectroDynamic Debris Eliminator (EDDE) vehicle, which is designed to clean up the growing debris problem in low Earth orbit.

Star Technology and Research (STAR) was awarded the contract under NASA’s Game Changing Technology program. STAR President Jerome Pearson is the project’s principal investigator.

“This is a new contract that started last month and will run for 2 years,” said Joe Carroll of Tether Applications, which is partnered on the project. “The focus is maturing technologies for EDDE on the ground; we may get a flight experiment later if the work goes well.”

According to STAR PowerPoint presentations, the vehicle is “based on the use of our electrodynamic thruster for space propulsion” and has the following features:

* Small vehicles that can be launched piggyback to larger satellites
* Propellantless, reusable space vehicles with virtually unlimited delta-V using solar power and electrodynamic thrust
* Maneuverable over all of low Earth orbit at any inclination
* Reusable, each capable of removing many targets
* Compact and lightweight—just 100 kg (220 lb), packs into 0.11 m3 (4 ft3)
* Captures debris with lightweight nets or grappler
* Single EDDE could capture 136 US sun-synchronous objects (68 tons) in 3 years
* 12 EDDEs could remove all 2,565 pieces (2,166 metric tons) of LEO debris greater than 2 kg in 7 years

According to a NASA budget document, STAR is to provide the space agency “with an advanced, sub-scale tether, and complete the manufacture and functional testing of this prototype for a tether-based in-space propulsion system” during the 2013 Fiscal Year, which begins on Oct. 1.

The company previously received funding for EDDE under the U.S. Navy’s Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program. The SBIR Phase 1 study was completed in 2010.

Ever since I listened to this FISO talk about them I have thought that their tether concept could be a game changer if it got funded and proved the technology out.  I am really happy to see that this happened.

Yeah, Joe Carroll and his STAR Technology counterparts have been pitching this idea for years. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

~Jon

[Danderman]

If Joe Carroll is involved, the tether part will probably work. Can't say about the other stuff, though.

[douglas100]

Obviously a lot of work and money will be needed to create an operational system. But it's good to see an idea that looks like it would actually work and provide a useful service into the bargain. It's neat too that EDDE can be a secondary payload on launches going to different inclinations and then maneuver to where it is needed without using propellant.

Does anyone know roughly what sort of thrust level an electrodynamic tether would produce? I'm assuming it would be at the micro newton level.

I'm assuming too that when the net of each EDDE is full it will be de-orbited.

[Blackjax]

Does anyone know if it would be practical to launch one of these along with primary payloads specifically as the main positioning mechanism to bring that payload to the correct orbit (instead of whatever is designed into or added on to a payload to accomplish this today)? 

I ask, because if it is practical, then it would mean that once you have the payload in its final place, you now have a tether available on orbit for debris removal.  If flights frequently went this route it would give you the constellation of tethers needed to deal with debris but largely paid for by the payloads they initially delivered.

[aero]

Just a comment. It seems that EDDE would recover spent upper stages. Is there a parking orbit in some out of the way corner where the spent upper stages could be stored for later commercial re-use? A rocket graveyard, so to speak. And how could they be confined to the yard, kept from wandering off? Once fuel becomes available from ISRU sources, (if ever), it might be quite practical to re-purpose these rather high thrust stages.

[Lar]

Just a comment. It seems that EDDE would recover spent upper stages. Is there a parking orbit in some out of the way corner where the spent upper stages could be stored for later commercial re-use? A rocket graveyard, so to speak. And how could they be confined to the yard, kept from wandering off? Once fuel becomes available from ISRU sources, (if ever), it might be quite practical to re-purpose these rather high thrust stages.

Even if not, the aluminum and other alloys might be good raw material (assuming a far higher level of overall infrastructure present)

So how is this project coming along? Any new news?