Date: September 10, 2017 The following document describes the data in the TSS-1, TSS-1R, and TSS-1Ro directories. The Tether Satellite System 1 (TSS-1) directory contains the data from the first flight of the Tether Satellite. The Tether Satellite was a NASA Space Shuttle experiment which was joint with Italy. TSS was a spherical conducting spacecraft connected to the Space Shuttle with a conducting wire. The experiment generated a current in the tether as the spacecraft and Shuttle crossed the magnetic field lines of the Earth. This current propagated along the Earth's magnetic field and closed in the ionosphere. Deployment of the TSS-1 spacecraft failed because the Shuttle deployer prevented the satellite from extending out of the shuttle bay. As a result, a reflight of the TSS-1 (TSS-1R) occurred after the deployer was repaired. The TSS-1R, with its repaired deployer, was successful at deploying the satellite; however, during the deployment, a build-up of pressure in the deployer system caused the tether cord to electrically short and eventually sever. With the satellite free-floating, ground experiments (measuring current flow in the ionosphere) in place at this time recorded no data as the tether was severed prior to contact, breaking closure of the circuit with the ionosphere. The Tethered Satellite was eventually lost to the atmosphere. The TSS-1 and TSS-1R data formats are nearly the same since the only major change from the TSS-1 to the TSS-1R flight was the deployer hardware. In addition, there is TSS-1Ro data. It is currently unknown what the data under TSS-1Ro means; however, it is thought that the TSS-1Ro data may be the original data archived during the TSS-1R mission and then corrected to form a proper version which was replaced under the TSS-1R heading. The TSS data is divided up into the following subdirectories: CAS - Shuttle Ancillary System DCORE -Deployer Core Equipment DPLY - Deployer 16/major Frame Miscellaneous Housekeeping DRB - Deployable-Retrievable Boom EMP - End-Mass Payload - Accelerometer, Tensiometer, Magnetometer RETE - Research on Electrodynamic Tether Effects ROPE - Research on Orbital Plasma Electrodynamics SAHK - Spacecraft Housekeeping SCORE - Satellite Core Equipment SETS - Shuttle Electrodynamic Tether System SPREE - Shuttle Potential and return Electron Experiment TEMAG - Magnetic Field Experiment for TSS Missions Little documentation survives from the TSS missions. Below is a list of articles which may assist the user in understanding these TSS data sets. Many of these documents were found in old files and may be draft versions of the final version, The TSS Project at NASA MSFC should have the final versions on file. However, since those project files are lost, this is the best that can be obtained. These documents should be replaced with the final version when NASA ever recovers them. 337451main_Tethers_In_Space_Handbook_Section_1_2.pdf - Tether Handbook 8th_The_Deflection_Plate_Analyzer-A_Technique_for_Plas_83.pdf - DIFF Probe Theory aerospace-04-00016.pdf - Electron Pre-sheath Model cp206900.pdf - Tether Technology Meeting TSS_FactSheet.pdf - TSS Fact Sheet Ellis_JR_D_2010.pdf - TSS Control IAC-12,E4,3A,3,x16294.pdf - TSS 1 -- THE TETHERED SATELLITE DEPLOYED FROM THE SPACE SHUTTLE eost9299.pdf - Mission General Overview of TSS-1 eost10934.pdf - Analysis of the TSS-1R Flight eost11048.pdf - In Brief: Analysis of the TSS-1R Loss grl10536.pdf - The current-voltage characteristics of a large probe in low Earth orbit: TSS-1R results grl10545.pdf - The TSS-1R mission: Overview and scientific context grl10546.pdf - Current-Voltage characteristics of the tethered satellite system: Measurements and uncertainties due to temperature variations grl10551.pdf - Observations of reflected ions and plasma turbulence for satellite potentials greater than the ion ram energy grl10553.pdf - Negative shuttle charging during TSS 1R grl10554.pdf - Megahertz electron modulations during TSS 1R grl10561.pdf - Enhanced electrodynamic tether currents due to electron emission from a neutral gas discharge: Results from the TSS-1R mission grl10567.pdf - Current flow through high-voltage sheaths observed by the TEMAG experiment during TSS-1R grl10584.pdf - Plasma waves in the sheath of the TSS-1R satellite grl10597.pdf - Suprathermal electrons observed on the TSS-1R satellite grl10620.pdf - TSS-1R vertical electric fields' Long baseline measurements using an electrodynamic tether as a double probe GurgioloEtAl_preprint.pdf - Suprathermal electron distributions TSS_SETS_Application_Manual.pdf - SETS Application Manual TSS_RETE_Telecomands.pdf - RETE Telecommands TSS_RETE_Telemetry.pdf - RETE Telemetry Layout TSS_SOC_DR_1.pdf - TSS SOC Design Requirements TSS_SOC_RTM_1.pdf - TSS SOC Traceability Matrix TSS_SOC_SDS_1.pdf - TSS SOC System Design TSS_SOC_Display_Definition_Draft.pdf - SOC Displays TSS_SOC_JIS.pdf - TSS Joint Simulations TSS_Test_Plan.pdf - TSS Teat Plan jgra11385.pdf - Electrodynamic Aspects of the First Tethered Satellite Mission Stone_TSS1Rresults_AdvSpaceRes_1999.pdf - THE TSS-1R ELECTRODYNAMIC TETHER EXPERIMENT: SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESULTS Tethered_Satellites.pdf - NASA Tethered Satellites TIS_chap1.pdf - Tethered Flights TSS_TelmAlloc.pdf - TSS telemetry allocation Gurgiolo_VIDF1_1.pdf - Overview of IDFS for TSS, Version 1.1 ROPE_EID.pdf - ROPE EID 06 SPES_Science_Count_Compression.pdf - ROPE SPES science Telemetry count compression Table SPES_Science_Filter_Info.pdf - Some ROPE SPES Characteristics 8957CMLRevF.pdf - ROPE Command and Measurement List, Revision F The validation of the data includes a comparison of two types of images. These are data from the original IDFS data drawn with the SpectroScalar program and the data converted into CDF format drawn with the gPlot program. There are differences in the way that each program handles data, so when comparing data from these two programs, one must be aware that the display may not be exactly the same between the two. There are three major differences between the two presentations: 1) SpectroScalar averages all of the data which falls within a plotting pixel; whereas, gPlot only draws the last piece of data stored in the pixel. 2) On linear plots, SpectroScalar draws a continuous line through data gaps; whereas, gPlot does not. 3) gPlot has the capability to pan, zoom, and slice data while SpectroScalar does not. Averaging of 1 effects spectrograms by showing a different color within a pixel; whereas, on line plots, the average value is drawn. Depending on the time cadence, an oscillatory picture of data will give an average value of zero in some cases if there is too much time within a pixel to cleanly separate the data in time. This is described in more detail in the file CDFValidationReport.txt.