The potential of miniature electrodynamic tethers to enhance capabilities of femtosatellites

The emerging interest in nanospacecraft (1-10 kg) has generated interest in exploring the potential for even smaller spacecraft, both as stand-alone satellites or as a distributed swarm. Because of advances in integrated circuit and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, the feasibility of miniaturized spacecraft at the levels of fully monolithic semiconductor integrated circuits (10-100 mg) or hybrid integrated circuits (10-100 g) is being seriously investigated. Effectively, this architecture can be thought of as a small “satellite-on-a-chip,” or ChipSat. ChipSats belong to the picosatellite (100 g-1 kg) and femtosatellite (<;100 g) mass categories. However, flat ChipSat wafers can have an inherently high area-to-mass ratio. Although this feature can be exploited for new behaviors, it can result in an undesirably short orbital life in low Earth orbit (LEO) due to atmospheric drag, ranging from a few weeks to a few hours.