Tether Physics and Survivability Experiment

TiPS was launched in 1996 by the US Naval Research Laboratory. A four-kilometre long tether connected two satellites named Ralph and Norton. The two satellites together had a mass just under 50 kilograms. Tethered satellites show promise in helping with orbital maneuvering, power generation and artificial gravity tests. This experiment was concluded in late 2006 when the tether presumably broke. I captured this video in the summer of 2004 with an Astrovid StellaCam EX, Celestron 8-inch NexStar GPS telescope with f/2 Fastar optics, NexRemote and SatelliteTracker software and a soundtrack from the shortwave time signal WWV from an observing site inside Toronto. The field of view here is about 40' x 50', slightly larger than the Full Moon.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• TiPS
• tether
• satellite
• YES2
• Astrovid
• Fastar
• WWV
• Fastwalker
• Fastwalkers
• UFO
• Symington
• Kucinich
• Phoenix
• Lights

[langyaw]

huh? the tether is less than an inch in diameter, and it is seen from earth? and consistently in a vertical position?

[apolloisgo]

Yup. It's a 4km cable that is taking up less than 100 pixels, so each pixel might be showing the brightness of 40m of cable. F/stop was 2, very fast and able to pick up dim objects. Most of the background stars are also very dim, yet visible. The outer space in the bg was a suitably black to make anything substantial stand out. Now, this satellite was invisible to the naked eye...

[apolloisgo]

The vertical position was part of the experiment, orbital dynamics keep the tether pointing straight up-and-down. The tether is under slight tension and there is minimal artificial gravity at both ends, swinging round each other once per orbit around the Earth.

[AlphaSigma10]

1) what are the objects passing by the tether?

2) what device tracks the tether?

3) who operates the device tracking the tether? (what is the source of this info?)

4) how old is this footage?

without any info, this footage is not very informative and neither too credible; it is interesting, but not informative;

[apolloisgo]

You might want to click on 'more info' at upper right for more info on how I video'ed this object.

[xXBadassXx]

is saw something that looked exactly like that about 2 months ago, no kidding.

[ahlberto]

Hi.What is the software you used for this.I have the same mount as you rhe nexstar 8" se and i would like to give a try on satellite tracking.

carlos

[standauffish]

Ignorance is bliss

be blissful LOL

[standauffish]

FANTASTIC Capture... thanks

I will add that to my collection on my website. Will PM you the link

[zenkonami]

Very nice...I'm not real knowledgeable on how these things are done...how was the object tracked by the camera? It seems to be moving across the sky quite quickly...is that more an illusion of the backdrop?