Lunar Sling Launcher - Tether Dynamics

Whenever somebody proposes a space-based system using tethers, the biggest question is always the dynamic behaviour of the system. A tether can only be loaded in tension. It has almost no longitudinal passive damping, and lateral damping that is so close to zero that it might as well not exist. On Earth, you get some damping due to interactions with the air. But in the vacuum of space, a lateral…