This team is dedicated to the study of aerospace systems involving tethers. It is part of the Aerospace Engineering Department at the UC3M. The activities of the team are organized along two research lines:

Space Tethers

These two fields of research are targeted towards the generation of clean energy and a sustainable use of outer space by using systems that involve a tether. Airborne wind energy systems are aircraft linked to the ground by a tether that can harvest wind energy at high altitudes. On the other hand, long conductors in orbit, also named electrodynamic tethers, can be used to deorbit spacecraft at the end of life passively by using the Lorentz force. Both research lines involve several branches of engineering and physics like dynamics of space systems, plasma physics, optimal control, mission analysis, and nonlinear dynamics and bifurcation theory in dynamical systems. The team has a broad experience in projects funded by the Spanish Government and the European Commission and participate actively in international consortia.