{"id":17816,"date":"2020-01-28T20:41:18","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T12:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/tethers-unlimited-says-terminator-tape-is-speeding-up-a-satellites-descent-as-intended\/"},"modified":"2020-01-28T20:41:18","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T12:41:18","slug":"tethers-unlimited-says-terminator-tape-is-speeding-up-a-satellites-descent-as-intended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/tethers-unlimited-says-terminator-tape-is-speeding-up-a-satellites-descent-as-intended\/","title":{"rendered":"Tethers Unlimited says \u2018Terminator Tape\u2019 is speeding up a satellite\u2019s descent as intended"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_544859\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-544859\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-544859\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/200128-tethers-630x628.jpg\" alt=\"Terminator Tape\" width=\"630\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/200128-tethers-630x628.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/200128-tethers-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/200128-tethers-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/200128-tethers.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-544859\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows Tethers Unlimited\u2019s Terminator Tape system deployed from a satellite in low Earth orbit. (Tethers Unlimited Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited says \u201cTerminator Tape,\u201d an experimental tether-based system designed to drag satellites down from orbit, is working the way it\u2019s supposed to.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The notebook-sized Terminator Tape system has been placed on several nanosatellites for testing \u2014 including Georgia Tech\u2019s Prox-1 satellite, which was sent into orbit last June on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Last September, the system\u2019s 230-foot-long tether was strung out to add to the slight atmospheric drag experienced in low Earth orbit. \u201cWe can see from observations by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network that the satellite immediately began deorbiting over 24 times faster,\u201d Tethers Unlimited CEO Rob Hoyt said in a news release.<\/li>\n<li>That\u2019s a good thing: Terminator Tape is meant to address the need to move retired satellites more quickly out of orbit, rather than having them add to the growing space-junk problem. \u201cInstead of remaining in orbit for hundreds or thousands of years, the Prox-1 satellite will fall out of orbit and burn up in the upper atmosphere in under 10 years. \u2026 This successful test proves that this lightweight and low-cost technology is an effective means for satellite programs to meet orbital debris mitigation requirements,\u201d Hoyt said.<\/li>\n<li>Tethers Unlimited is currently collaborating with Millennium Space Systems, TriSept and Rocket Lab on a test mission known as DragRacer, due for launch this year. The mission will compare the deorbit rates for two identical satellites, one with Terminator Tape and one without, to characterize the system\u2019s performance more precisely. Hoyt told Space News that in the years ahead, the system could be attached to defunct satellites in orbit using Tethers Unlimited\u2019s planned LEO Knight servicing robot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows Tethers Unlimited\u2019s Terminator Tape system deployed from a satellite in low Earth orbit. (Tethers Unlimited Illustration) Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited says \u201cTerminator Tape,\u201d an experimental tether-based system designed to drag satellites down from orbit, is working the way it\u2019s supposed to. The notebook-sized Terminator Tape system has been placed on several [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20,442,4180,4793],"class_list":["post-17816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-satellite","tag-satellites","tag-space-junk","tag-tethers-unlimited"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}