Plasma Motor Generator (PMG) electrodynamic tether experiment

Abstract

The Plasma Motor Generator (PMG) flight of June 26, 1993 has been the most sophisticated and most successful mission that has been carried out thus far with an electrodynamic tether. Three papers from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Washington, DC concerned with the PMG, submitted at the Fourth International Space Conference on Tethers in Space, in Washington, DC, in April 1995, are contained in this document. The three papers are (1) Electromagnetic interactions between the PMG tether and the magneto-ionic medium of the Ionosphere; (2) Tether-current-voltage characteristics, as determined by the Hollow Cathode Operation Modes; and (3) Hawaii-Hilo ground observations on the occasion for the PMG flight of June 23, 1993