--- I remember seeing an actual successful test on one of the science channels.. I remember the tether successfully producing a large amount of electricty as it raced through the atmosphere of earth... however, it snaped after some sort of discharge.... you could see the tether at night from the surface of the earth.
Pretty cool stuff.
The Terminator Tether Satellite Deorbit System:
Low-Cost, Low-Mass End-of-Mission Disposal for Space Debris Migitation
If the system has a means for collecting electrons from the ionospheric plasma at one end of the tether and expelling them back into the plasma at the other end of the tether, the voltage can drive a current along the tether. This current will, in turn, interact with the Earth's magnetic field to cause a Lorentz JXB force which will oppose the motion of the tether and whatever it is attached to. This "electrodynamic drag force" will decrease the orbit of the tether and its host spacecraft. Essentially, the tether converts the orbital energy of the host spacecraft into electrical power, which is dissipated as ohmic heating in the tether.
What is a Space Tether?A space tether is a long cable used to couple spacecraft to each other or to other masses, such as a spent booster rocket, space station, or an asteroid. Space tethers are usually made of thin strands of high-strength fibers or conducting wires. The tether can provide a mechanical connection between two space objects that enables the transfer of energy and momentum from one object to the other, and as a result they can be used to provide space propulsion without consuming propellant. Additionally, conductive space tethers can interact with the Earth's magnetic field and ionospheric plasma to generate thrust or drag forces without expending propellant
