An optical tracker for an orbiting tethered system

The design of a tether tracker that provides real-time data for the position of a tether at its attachment point is examined. The optical and computational equipment that are used in the tether tracker design are described. The gating process and the algorithm used to perform the position determination are discussed. Simulation results show the tether tracker to be a feasible design. The gating process produces the desired results in that small errors are achieved and the computational time is greatly reduced