Fresh Idea to Achieve LEO

Ed,

I've heard of using tethers to deorbit satellites by interaction with
the earth's magnetic field, however, it is not clear how MV could be
transferred from LEO tanks to the ISS which is at a significantly
higher orbit.

Regards,

Tom

--- In spacesettlers@y..., Al Globus wrote:
>
> Ed Minchau wrote:
>
> > eg: US Space Shuttle. ...
> >
> > Want to talk wasteful? over 100 of those external tanks have been
> > wasted. If NASA went for direct insertion, the tanks could be
> > salvaged; any one of them would be worth their mass in gold. And
> > they are giving it away for FREE, if you can salage it according
to
> > their criteria.
> >
> Problem is, salvage is hard and the tanks won't stay up there
without
> constant re-boost requiring expensive fuel. Furthermore, as is,
the tanks
> aren't worth much. Launching and operating a processing facility
is also
> extremely difficult.
>
> One concept I haven't seen much about: could one de-orbit tanks
from the
> space station using a tether? Momentum would be transferred from
the tank
> to the space station. This would provide re-boost for the space
station
> without fuel. International Space Station may be far too
expensive, but
> it's out there and it's not going to go away anytime soon. We
might as well
> use it.
>
snip