Trying to put the thread into orbit

1994/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronautika

It is not easy to deploy a few miles of yarn in space. The astronauts of the Atlantis space in August 1992, after having tied the Italian TTS satellite, moved away from it. Systematic tests of spatial behavior of the detached thread have been carried out. In March 1993, a 20-kilometer-long polyethylene thread was extended. In June of the same year a copper thread of 500 meters in length was placed.

Another year, NASA has conducted a new trial in March with the launch of the Delta launcher. To the second module of the projector was joined the end of a 0.8mm thick polyethylene thread. The thread was collected in a container of 26 kilos of aluminum and when one hour of the launch was 351 kilometers from the Earth, the aluminum container was discarded. In two hours the thread was stretched and the aluminum container has tension meters and thread orientation. You want to know how long the thread will last without breaking.