Students designed a method to lower objects from space to Earth using a cable

The tiny satellite is being built by a group of European students, as part of an ongoing education and training program operated by the European Space Agency, called Young Engineers Satellite - YES

Published in the Galileo journal

This September, a Russian research satellite from the Foton series will be launched into space. A tiny satellite, known as "Putino", will be attached to this satellite. The tiny satellite is being built by a group of European students, as part of an ongoing education and training program operated by the European Space Agency, called Young Engineers Satellite - YES. The YES program allows young Europeans studying for degrees in space engineering, physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and more to make proposals for a research satellite. The winning proposal is funded by the European Space Agency, and the young engineers get an extraordinary opportunity to participate in the development and construction of a satellite.
As part of the YES-2 project, the second project of its kind, a proposal was selected for the development of a mechanism that could lower an object from space to the Earth without the need for rocket engines for maneuvering. The idea is based on what is known as Tether, meaning a wire or cable. The idea of ​​the students and young engineers is to lay out a 30 km long wire, and let the small satellite they built follow the large satellite to which it was connected at the beginning of the mission. Over time, and despite the almost complete vacuum that prevails at an altitude of several hundred kilometers, a drag will be created that will create tension in the cable and slow down the movement of the small satellite. Then the connection to the large satellite will be cut off, and the small satellite will begin to penetrate the atmosphere, at a well-defined time and place, in order to bring it to land on Earth.

The wire that will be spread between the satellites will be very long, but thin - only half a mm thick. Calculations show that under dark conditions, it will be possible to notice it with the naked eye (be patient - when the mission is launched we will inform you about the possibility of viewing the special satellite).

Beyond the educational initiative, the project (which employs over 500 young engineers from all over Europe) has two additional goals: to reveal the opportunities of the labor market related to the space field, as well as to demonstrate new technologies.
Thus, for example, the wire that will be deployed will be the longest ever attempted, and it will be the first time that a wire will be used for this purpose to connect satellites, which will result in the return of one of them to Earth. This is of enormous importance - because if the applicability of the principle is proven, such systems could be used to lower satellites from space upon completion of their mission, and reduce the nuisance of "space junk" at the low altitudes of the orbits - which are also the most crowded. Another application of dropping cargo from space to the ground using wires could be dropping cargo and experiments from the International Space Station.
In the past, some experiments were done with satellites tied to a wire, but most of them did not end successfully. Stripping a long wire containing a metallic component can be used as a tool to generate electricity for satellites and spacecraft - since a conducting wire moving at a speed close to eight kilometers per second, within the Earth's magnetic field, generates electricity.
The European experiment will go into space on a Russian launcher, and will be attached to a large research satellite called, as mentioned, "Photon". The design of the Photon satellite is based on the first manned spacecraft, the "Vostok", in which Yuri Gagarin flew into space on April 12.4.1961, XNUMX. The Soviet Union, followed by Russia, did not stop the production of the spacecraft, and it is still used today in a variety of models and missions, including as photography satellites and research satellites that return a large landing cell to Earth.