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7603207 |
Surrogate air processor
A control system for remotely controlling a mobile platform includes a ground-based control station and a surrogate processor. The surrogate processor is remotely located from both the mobile...
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7599768 |
Method for computer-assisted determination of an optimum-fuel control of nozzles
Method for the computer-assisted determination of an optimum-fuel control of nozzles according to a control instruction b=Ax. A defined matrix transformation of starting constraints for the mass...
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7580778 |
Methods and systems for controlling multi-body vehicles with fuel slosh
Methods and systems for controlling multi-body vehicles with fuel slosh are provided. In a method for stabilizing a vehicle with fuel slosh, a controller for a multi-body assembly is formed by...
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7561947 |
Dynamic CMG array and method
Methods and apparatus are provided for reorienting control moment gyros (CMGs) to compensate for CMG failure or change in spacecraft (S/C) mass properties or mission. An improved CMG comprises a...
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7546983 |
Spacecraft power acquisition method for wing-stowed configuration
A system for, and method of recovering a solar-powered spacecraft from an anomaly that renders the attitude of the spacecraft unknown includes maintaining a power-safe attitude by switching between...
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7510148 |
Dynamic yaw steering method for spacecrafts
A spacecraft with a yaw steering system performing yaw steering. The yaw steering includes steering the spacecraft to have a yaw angle (ψ) for all sun elevation angles (β) in accordance with a...
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7487016 |
Method for compensating star motion induced error in a stellar inertial attitude determination system
A method for controlling an actuator of a vehicle comprises providing a dynamic condition sensor generating a vehicle movement signal and a position sensor for generating a reported position. A...
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7464898 |
Precision thrust/sun tracking attitude control system for gimbaled thruster
A system for providing precision thrust and sun tracking attitude control is provided. The system determines a proximity region and alternately engages either an ideal operational mode or a...
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7451022 |
Calibration of ship attitude reference
A ship includes a star tracker mounted on a platform stabilized in ENU by the inertial navigation system (INS). The line-of-sight (LOS) of the star tracker is directed toward two separated stars,...
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7428098 |
Structureless space telescope
A structureless space telescope is disclosed. The structureless primary mirror includes a plurality of mirror elements for focusing and reflecting electromagnetic radiation, and the telescope...
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7413147 |
System and method for propellantless photon tether formation flight
The invention is a system and method for propellantless, ultrahigh precision satellite formation flying based on ultrahigh precision intracavity laser thrusters and tethers with an intersatellite...
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7410130 |
Star-tracker-based attitude determination for spinning spacecraft
A method of determining the attitude of a spinning spacecraft is provided. The method includes stabilizing the spacecraft, initializing the attitude of the spacecraft using star tracker data, and...
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7407137 |
Dual voltage integrated power and attitude control system and method
An integrated power and attitude control system and method for a vehicle efficiently supplies electrical power to both low voltage and high voltage loads, and does not rely on relatively heavy...
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7376496 |
Spacecraft magnetic momentum control system
Momentum control is maintained in a geosynchronous orbiting spacecraft that uses a plurality of reaction wheel assemblies and a plurality of magnetic torquers to control the spacecraft momentum,...
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7370834 |
Apparatus and methods for in-space satellite operations
Apparatus and methods for performing satellite proximity operations such as inspection, recovery and life extension of a target satellite through operation of a “Satellite Inspection Recovery and...
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7357356 |
Attitude and antenna steering system for geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) spacecraft
A system for providing attitude and antenna steering for a spacecraft is disclosed. The spacecraft has a number of reaction wheels and a number of antennas. The system includes control logic...
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7310578 |
Fast access, low memory, pair catalog
A system ( 18 ) includes: a) A vehicle ( 12 ) includes an attitude or angular velocity control system ( 38 ), a plurality of star trackers or star sensors ( 22 ) each having a field of view ( 28 );...
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7280917 |
Systems and methods for controlling a landing position of sensors deployed from an air vehicle
A sensing device is described that is configured to be launched from an air vehicle for deployment on the ground. The sensing device includes at least one sensor, an inertial measurement unit...
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7278611 |
Pulsed detonation engines for reaction control systems
Pulsed detonation engines (PDEs) are adapted for use in reaction control systems (RCS), such as thrusters for orbital correction and control (e.g., for earth-orbiting satellites), divert thrust...
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7260456 |
Pixel-frequency slews and filters for star data measurements
A method and apparatus for reducing centroiding error of a star sensor having a plurality of pixels is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of computing a star sensor angular slew rate of ω...
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7246775 |
System and method of substantially autonomous geosynchronous time-optimal orbit transfer
Method of and system for on-board substantially autonomous control for transferring a spacecraft from an initial orbit to a final geosynchronous orbit, by a trajectory that minimizes remaining...
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7219860 |
Spacecraft including control vanes having variable absorptive, reflective and emissive characteristics
A spacecraft including control vanes for controlling the pointing direction of the spacecraft by providing a variable absorptive, reflective, emissive and/or transmissive properties. The control...
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7219014 |
Method and apparatus for real-time star exclusion from a database
A vehicle ( 12 ) including a control system ( 18 ) is used for controlling vehicle attitude or angular velocity ( 38 ). The processor ( 24 ) is coupled to a star sensor or tracker ( 22 ) and a...
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7216036 |
Integrated inertial stellar attitude sensor
An integrated inertial stellar attitude sensor for an aerospace vehicle includes a star camera system, a gyroscope system, a controller system for synchronously integrating an output of said star...
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7185856 |
Method for controlling the attitude of an satellites in elliptic orbits using solar radiation pressure
The present invention provides a method for the attitude control of satellites in elliptic orbits or satellites initially placed in circular orbits perturbed to elliptic orbits due to environmental...
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7171290 |
Method and device for controlling satellite attitude and steering using a gyrodyne cluster
In order to control the attitude of a satellite having at least four gyroscopic actuators with respective spinners mounted on gimbals steerable about axes parallel to one or the other of only two...
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7149610 |
Momentum estimator for on-station momentum control
A method and apparatus for estimating spacecraft momentum is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of generating a plurality of spacecraft momentum measurements, fitting the plurality of...
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7143982 |
Dynamic yaw steering method for spacecrafts
A method for yaw steering a spacecraft including performing yaw steering of the spacecraft to have a yaw angle (ψ) for all sun elevation angles (β). The method further including smoothing a yaw...
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7142981 |
Laser range finder closed-loop pointing technology of relative navigation, attitude determination, pointing and tracking for spacecraft rendezvous
A closed-loop LRF pointing technology to measure the range of a target satellite from a chaser satellite for rendezvous is provided that includes: LOS angle measurements of the target, a relative...
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7136752 |
Method and apparatus for on-board autonomous pair catalog generation
A system ( 18 ) includes: a) A vehicle ( 12 ) includes an attitude or angular velocity control system ( 38 ), a plurality of star trackers or star sensors ( 22 ) each having a field of view ( 28 );...
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7124001 |
Relative attitude estimator for multi-payload attitude determination
A method and apparatus for estimating a slave payload attitude is disclosed. The method includes accepting a plurality of slave payload attitude measurements, deriving a model of the relative...
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7090170 |
In-orbit satellite sensor alignment determination
A sensor alignment system and method is provided that facilitates the precise alignment determination of satellite sensors. The system and method utilizes an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to...
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7076341 |
Autonomous manoeuvring for spinning spacecraft
An inventive autonomous active manoeuvring method and system 1 for spinning spacecraft is provided having a capability to enhance the AOCMS performance of passive spinning satellites and to...
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7062363 |
Refinement of spacecraft angular velocity and attitude estimates using star data
A method and apparatus for refining a spacecraft state estimate, such as an attitude estimate or an angular velocity estimate, is disclosed. The method computes a plurality equations using...
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7025307 |
Method and apparatus for solar tacking momentum maintenance in long-duration deployment of a large reflector
A method and an apparatus for controlling the attitude and momentum of a spacecraft while deploying an appendage from the spacecraft. The method uses solar tacking and similar techniques to produce...
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6990396 |
Method and apparatus for reaction wheel dynamic compensation in long-duration deployment of a large reflector
A method and an apparatus for controlling the attitude and momentum of a spacecraft while deploying an appendage from the spacecraft. The method comprises the steps of predicting an environmental...
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6978966 |
Reflector deployment error estimation
A system and method for performing in-orbit alignment calibration using on-board attitude sensors to improve reflector alignment after deployment to improve spacecraft pointing.
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6951317 |
Vehicle, lightweight pneumatic pilot valve and related systems therefor
A vehicle, such as a missile, with a pilot valve system controls the vehicle's thrust valves despite a hostile propellant gas environment. The pilot valve system can have one or more pilot valves....
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6921050 |
Solar torque control using thin film directionally reflective, emissive, absorptive and transmissive surfaces
Controlling the solar torque imposed on a spacecraft ( 10 ) in flight by providing a film ( 52 ) with variable absorptive, reflective, emissive and/or transmissive properties on the sun side of a...
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6921049 |
System for counteracting a disturbance in a spacecraft
A system for counteracting a disturbance in a spacecraft includes a biasing apparatus that is coupled to the spacecraft and a spacecraft controller within the spacecraft. The disturbance has a...
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6921048 |
Method and apparatus for minimizing solar array sun tracking disturbance by north and south solar array wing cancellation
A method and system for minimizing the solar array sun tracking disturbance is disclosed. The method separates the North solar array wing stepping and South solar array wing stepping in time, and...
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6917025 |
Combined earth/star sensor system and method for determining the orbit and position of spacecraft
A combined earth-star sensor system ( 1 ) for three-axis attitude determination of satellites in space comprises separate apertures with different directions of observation and common image pickup...
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6891498 |
Inertial reference system for a spacecraft
An inertial reference system for a spacecraft includes an attitude control assembly and a plurality of force sensors. The attitude control assembly is coupled to a spacecraft body at a plurality of...
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6863244 |
Mitigation of angular acceleration effects on optical sensor data
A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for compensating for optical sensor data corrupted by angular acceleration is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of...
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6860451 |
Spacecraft spin axis reorientation method
A reorientation controller for a satellite includes a slew rate command generator that generates a slew rate command signal ({right arrow over (ω)} r — cmd ) in response to an attitude error...
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6851651 |
Constellation of spacecraft, and broadcasting method using said constellation
In general, a constellation of spacecraft is used to broadcast to a particular region with high angles of view in order to reduce blockage or shadowing. A constellation of a plurality of spacecraft...
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6845951 |
Method of controlling pointing for a flexible structure
A method of controlling pointing for a flexible structure such as a satellite includes: providing feedforward and reference inputs of a pointing control system with prefilters; and scheduling the...
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6834841 |
Method and system for decoupling structural modes to provide consistent control system performance
A method and system for calculating a control function for a structural system ( 10 ) that can be used to determine an appropriate control force to apply to an active member ( 18 ) within a...
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6775599 |
Multi-function reaction wheel assemblies for controlling spacecraft attitude
A plurality of sensors provide spacecraft attitude signals to reaction wheel assemblies which provide converted signals to a flight controller that controls the reaction wheel assemblies. The...
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6766227 |
Attitude-acquisition methods and systems for controlled spacecraft attitude
Attitude acquisition methods and systems are provided which reduce the time generally required to acquire spacecraft attitude estimates and enhance the probability of realizing such estimates. The...
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