On the thrust capability of electrodynamic tethers working in generator mode

The problem of estimating the necessary conditions under which a passive electrodynamic tether (EDT) increases the orbital energy of a satellite is studied in its full generality. We derive the thrust conditions of both spinning and nonspinning EDT and the maximum achievable thrust for a generic orbit and tether attitude. After showing that in general thrust arcs are possible even when the orbital velocity exceeds the plasma velocity we show an example of EDT orbit raising starting from a low-altitude equatorial elliptic orbit around Jupiter