Space Studies Institute Report on Space Shuttle External Tank Applications by J. Alex Gimarc 12-01-1985 copyright Space Studies Institute there exists an orbital engine with a better power to thrust efficiency than present ion engines. Another technique would be to store excess photovoltaic energy by raising altitude through the Alfven Engine during daylight periods of the orbit and use the excess to power the station during periods of darkness in the orbit. IV. Shuttle Mission Enhancements There are significant tether related enhancements of the basic shuttle mission. As had been mentioned in earlier sections, the momentum exchange technique is clearly the most attractive when combined with the ET. There are several variations to this theme that are of interest when applied to shuttle missions. A. Orbit Raising and Lowering With the ET As mentioned previously, the timed released of the ET into the proper orbit can be used to transfer the orbiter and/or its payloads into orbits unreachable with current techniques (50, 56). There are several choices in this regard. The first is the reentry of the orbiter from altitude while lofting the ET into an orbit which will not decay in a short period of time. The second choice is to loft the orbiter into a higher orbit by the controlled release of the ET from a rotating ET/Orbiter which will not decay in a short period of time. The second choice is to loft the orbiter into a higher orbit by the controlled release of the ET from a rotating ET/Orbiter system and deorbit the ET after release. This is a possible use of the ET, but may not be the best choice for actual applications. A third choice would be to release the ET in either direction from a non-rotating system. A fourth possible use would be to release a payload from the orbiter itself while the orbiter is still connected to the ET. The advantage of this technique is in two areas. The first is that a swinging release coupled with a burn by the payload at release is even more effective than a swinging release. The second advantage is that the combined mass of the Orbiter/ET is more than that of the Orbiter itself and therefore allows more energy to be put in the loft of the payload.
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