Estimation of Propellant Mass Requirements for Thruster-Driven Momentum Exchange Tether Deployer Vehicles

This article outlines a general approach to determining propellant mass requirements for operating a momentum exchange tether (MET), the rotation of which is driven by traditional thrusters for rideshare payload deployments. For payloads flying aboard rideshare launches, some may require unique deployment and ΔV requirements different from those of other payloads, requiring dedicated payload-based propulsion or unique deployment operations. By implementing METs, minimal hardware modification and native deployer-based propulsion can be used to support these unique deployments and expand deployer capabilities. Following initial tether hardware definition, vehicle-agnostic maneuvers for system spin-up, spin-down, and orbit correction maneuvers can be designed, each with their own propellant requirements. The total propellant mass for these maneuvers can contribute to later comparison with other deployment methods, such as motor-driven METs or traditional propulsive maneuvering.