New Electrodynarnic Tether Technology (NETT) is
an experiment we proposed to ESA as part of the Columbus
Precursor Flights. It was designed to fly as an exposed
payload in the Spacelab carrier. Its primary objective
is performance testing for the innovative bare tether
concept. The experiment also includes two scientific objectives, specific for uninsulated tethers: i) detection of artificial auroral effects produced by secondary electron
emission, and ii) detection of VLF wave emission. Additional
objectives of the project are space performance of an electron-emitting hollow cathode and engineering verification of an open-loop deployment strategy
