August 11, 2015 – Our speaker this week was Jerome Pearson and his topic was one which was truly “out of this world” and “way above our heads!” Pearson has degrees in both geological engineering and aerospace engineering and is the President of STAR, Inc., headquartered in Mount Pleasant. He came to Charleston in 1998, but before that had an illustrious career with NASA where he received the Apollo Achievement Award in 1969 – a year of great accomplishment for that program, since it saw the first time humans set foot on the Moon. Pearson has published over 100 technical articles over the years and is the inventor of much space travel technology including a space elevator system famously used in a novel by Arthur C. Clarke. He came to us to speak about his company’s current project: EDDE.
EDDE is an acronym which stands for two functions this device will serve. The acronym stands first for electro dynamic delivery express and second for electro dynamic debris eliminator. EDDE uses the magnetic fields surrounding earth to produce electricity to power movement from orbit to orbit. To do this EDDE deploys a conductor tether which can be as long as a mile in length from a cube shaped module. On the tether are solar panels. As EDDE travels through the magnetic field this conductor is able to generate electricity which powers EDDE. This technology makes EDDE substantially less expensive to operate then other proposed means of propulsion such as ion drives and plasma motors. EDDE can easily take objects out to orbits as high as 1200 to 1300 miles above earth. EDDE also can inexpensively move satellites to and from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or from one position in such an orbit to another. Using current technologies, these orbital position changes are extremely difficult and expensive. As a result EDDE’s technology could revolutionize the commercialization of space. EDDE could serve as a much better vehicle to bring objects from near Earth orbit to other orbits at less expense than existing upper stage delivery vehicles. The first EDDE test vehicle is scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2016. A large version of EDDE could even be used to relocate an object as large as the Hubble space telescope. Pearson envisions the day when large EDDEs might be used to relocate large used aluminum tanks from expended upper stage delivery vehicles to space manufacturing facilities. These tanks are made from extremely valuable material. Because of the energy needed to deliver material to space, these left over parts could be worth thousands of dollars per pound. Needless to say the ability to save perhaps $10,000.00 per pound for such material provides great economic advantage.
The second function EDDE could serve is to clear some of the space debris which circles earth at this time. Currently over 2,800 objects the size of a softball or larger circle the earth in LEO. These objects present a danger to functioning satellites and to the international space station. A fleet of six EDDEs could eliminate all 2,800 of these dangerous objects within six or seven years. EDDE accomplishes this task by streaming a net made of thin fibers not much larger than dental floss. This net then captures the debris. Once these objects are captured EDDE would take these objects down to lower orbits where the objects soon enter earth’s atmosphere and burn up harmlessly.
As noted above, Pearson’s company is located right here in the lowcountry. His company has contracts not only with NASA, but also with DARPA, the Air Force and other organizations directly tied to the use of space. EDDE even appeared in a documentary about space debris which is included on DVDs of the movie “Gravity” which of course demonstrated dramatically the danger space debris represents. It is truly amazing that the future of space commercialization is being transformed not in some distant university facility or government laboratory but right here in our own community!
— Alex Dallis