From: utzoo!decvax!genradbo!grkermit!earle
Newsgroups: net.space
Title: Re: Saving the Shuttle External Tank
Article-I.D.: grkermit.305
Posted: Tue Mar 15 09:23:33 1983
Received: Tue Mar 22 08:20:06 1983
References: alice.1568 uofm-cv.158 floyd.1297 eagle.830

The latest issue of Space World has an article on use of external tanks
in orbit.  One proposal is to tether a mass to the ET with a Kevlar cable
and use tidal forces to keep the ET pointing forward in orbit, thus
minimizing drag and extending the time before decay.  Another is to use
a similar cable between the orbiter and its ET on each flight: they would
be spun about their common center of mass, and the cable cut at precisely
the right moment, boosting the tank to a higher orbit and allowing the
orbiter to reenter with little or no expenditure of fuel (thus boosting
payload again).  If the in-orbit ETs were rigidly linked together, each
orbiter flight could boost the group slightly, eventually producing a
large assembly of space station modules, complete with consummables, in
a stable orbit. See the article for more (fascinating!) details.

Earle T. Fettig
GenRad Concord MA