Preliminary investigation of the electrodynamics of a conducting tether

An introductory study of the properties of an electrically conducting tether flown from the shuttle is presented. Only a single configuration is considered: a vertical conductor moving normally across the Earth's field, connecting the shuttle to a large conducting balloon that passively extracts electrons from the ionosphere. The distortions in the plasma at maximum current collection are described, as are the local and distant wakes. Numerical values are given.