Rob Holt and Tethers Unlimited: The Terminator Tether

Now, it specializes in industrial textiles. So when the staff received a call from Seattle Company, Tethers unlimited, they were ready to help. Rob Holt and his partner think they have the answer to satellite disposal. And it's called the Terminator Tether. A couple of years ago, one of the NASA scientists whose job it is to worry about space debris, has to us whether it might be possible to use electric and amic feathers to get rid of space debris. A Terminator Tether is a long conductive wire line stored in the payload of a satellite. When the satellite ceases to function, it deploys the Tether, which trails through space and into the Earth's magnetic field. The moving satellite drags the Tether at about 8 kilometers per second through the Earth's magnetic field. This action induces a voltage allowing a current to flow, which produces a kind of drag effect known as the Lorenz Force. After about three months, the satellite is dragged from orbit, phoning in the Earth's atmosphere. NASA tried the Tether approach itself, but without success. The Tether was severed in just four days by the very thing the agency is trying to eradicate. Space jump.