Conceptual Design and Mechanical Analysis of a Lunar Anchored Cislunar Tether

Abstract

A long tether anchored to the lunar surface and extended to position tens thousands of kilometers above the Earth is put forward. It could be used as an auxiliary cislunar traffic track to transfer cargos along it to the Moon without rocket landing and ascending, saving fuels. The configuration and statics of the tether is examined carefully within the Earth–Moon circular restricted three-body system. Firstly, the tensile stress in the tether is regarded as a main restriction factor, which is calculated for the case with a constant cross section. By then, the allowable endpoint position is proposed. So far, only materials available in laboratory, such as carbon nanotube, can sustain such a long and thin tether. Secondly, the constant tensile stress tether with variant cross section is taken into account. Then the key restriction factor is becoming the variation ratio of the tether’s cross section, which is determined by the material’s density and the tensile stress. In this condition, available materials expand to carbon fiber and some mass-produced composite materials. As a verdict, such a lunar anchored cislunar tether is more than science fiction in the sense of mechanics and material.

A Tether System at the L1, L2 Collinear Libration Points of the Mars–Phobos System: Analytical Solutions

“…The space tether systems allow us to perform missions that are impossible, impractical or unprofitable to accomplish with the help of other space equipment. For example, tether systems can be used for docking between spacecraft [1], as a space elevator [2][3][4][5][6], for payload orbital transfer [7,8], for exploring deep space [9], the atmosphere and the surface of the planets and their moons [10], as well as asteroids. For instance, Mashayekhi and Misra studied the effect of attaching a tether and ballast mass to an asteroid with subsequent cutting of the tether [11].…”