REM%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (02/12/84)
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM @ MIT-MC> If an astronaut can find even one place to latch onto the antenna or whatever, perhaps with gentle anti-torque force the satellite can be gradually slowed down in spinrate? Or maybe drape a large net over it and let brushing with the net equalize spinrates between net and satellite, then the astronaut can latch onto the net instead of the satellite directly for despinning it?
kcarroll@utzoo.UUCP (Kieran A. Carroll) (02/20/84)
* One objection that's been voiced against trying to recapture the Palapa and the other recently stranded satellite is that the thing's spinning, and that it'd be too hard for the shuttle to grapple a spinning object. Now, in our spacecraft design class, we were told that standard practice when designing spinners is to include spin-up/spin-down thrusters. Does anyone on the net know enough about the design of these satellites, to know if this is the case here? If it is, the satellite could spin itself down, before the shuttle tried to capture it. By the way, I do realize that the satellite was spun up by a spin table on the shuttle before release, which seems to suggest no radial thrusters. However, this may have been done in order to ensure the spin axis was the one desired, and to conserve manoeuvering fuel on the satellite itself, so it doesn't tell us right away whether or not radial jets are there. -Kieran A. Carroll ...decvax!utzoo!kcarroll