Matches 101 - 150 out of 276 < 1 2 3 4 5 6 >
Match Document Document Title
6032903 Cooperative control structures and methods for satellite spin axis control  
Structures and methods are provided to effect satellite maneuvers in the presence of disturbance torques with enhanced fuel efficiency. A thruster control loop is combined with a wheel control loop...
6021979 Sun-referenced safe-hold control for momentum biased satellites  
A sun-referenced safe-hold control system for momentum-biased satellites employs a safe-hold processor responsive to a set of sun sensors to detect attitude errors of the solar wings. Safe-hold...
6019319 Momentum wheel energy storage system using magnetic bearings  
A momentum wheel energy storage system employs a semi-passive magnetic bearing. The system provides advantages over chemical electrical storage batteries including enhanced storage life. The use of...
6006871 Pneumatic device for locking/unlocking a rotor to a stator  
A device for locking and unlocking a rotor to a stator, at least parallel to the rotation axis of the rotor, includes an annular rotor flange transverse to the axis, an annular stator bearing...
6003818 System and method for utilizing stored momentum to optimize spacecraft slews  
A system and method for slewing a spacecraft with a reaction wheel system including determining initial total momentum, determining maximum forward and reverse rates that can be realized within the...
5996942 Autonomous solar torque management  
A method in accordance with this invention for maintaining a spacecraft in a desired orbital configuration, comprises the steps of: (a) recording a history of yaw momentum stored in momentum...
5996941 Method for controlling the attitude of a three-axis stabilized, earth oriented bias momentum spacecraft  
An attitude controller for a 3-axis stabilized, Earth oriented bias momentum spacecraft is described, where only 2-axis attitude measurements from the Earth sensor are available. In contrast to the...
5992799 Earth based spacecraft orbit and attitude control using a look-ahead thruster selection logic and magnetic torquers  
A spacecraft ground loop controller (GLC), located on the Earth, interfaces with a satellite ground station receiving spacecraft telemetry from the downlink baseband equipment and automatically...
5984236 Momentum unloading using gimbaled thrusters  
A method of simultaneously controlling East/West and North/South positioning and unloading momentum of a spacecraft while orbiting an object. The spacecraft has a thruster array and a momentum...
5935176 Momentum wheel oscillation filter  
Momentum wheel speed correction in an orbital space vehicle that corrects for the oscillation resulting from spurious variations in the angular velocity of the momentum wheel. The momentum wheel's...
5931421 Arrangement for attitude control and stabilization of a three axes stabilized spacecraft  
An arrangement for attitude control and stabilization of a three-axis stabilized, bias momentum spacecraft which is equipped with a spin wheel arrangement that is capable of generating an angular...
5921505 System and method for reducing mechanical disturbances from energy storage flywheels  
Method and system providing enhanced mechanical stability in an electrically-powered vehicle. The system includes an electrical power subsystem arranged on a vehicle structure. At least two...
5906338 Sun search method and apparatus for a satellite stabilized in three axes  
The sun search method for a satellite stabilized in three axes according to the invention uses a sun sensor device with a visual field possibly containing gaps, and a rotational speed gyro which...
5875676 Non colocated rate sensing for control moment gyroscopes  
A feedback system for use in controlling control moment gyroscopes that are used in positioning a spacecraft where the relative rate of rotation is determined from the difference between the...
5862495 Real time position correction to ground generated spacecraft ephemeris  
Real time correction to ground generated satellite ephemeris implements a reference trajectory management module (334), an error estimation module (336), an parameter calculation module (338) and a...
5852792 Spacecraft boresight calibration filter  
Concurrent determinations of errors for application of corrections to sensor data signals from an orbiting space vehicle to reduce or to eliminate the three components of boresight error. To locate...
5841370 Method and apparatus for determining aircraft bank angle using satellite navigational signals  
An apparatus for determining the bank angle of an aircraft and method includes a receiver for receiving navigational signals from NAVSTAR/GPS satellites in orbit about the earth, a signal processor...
5826828 Sun/earth acquisition without thrusters  
Methods for performing attitude maneuvers of a spinning satellite without the use of thrusters, or with a minimal number of thrusters, are disclosed. The attitude maneuvers are primarily achieved...
5826829 Spacecraft control system with a trihedral momentum bias wheel configuration  
An active attitude control system for a spacecraft having first, second, and third mutually perpendicular axes utilizes four flywheels, at a minimum, which can selectively provide options of fully...
5820079 Mechanism for mounting and actuating a momentum wheel with high vibration isolation  
An apparatus for mounting a momentum wheel assembly (10) to a spacecraft (54). The momentum wheel assembly (10) includes a momentum wheel which has a primary spin axis coinciding with the primary...
5820078 Control motion gyro with vibration isolation  
A control moment gyro having a housing enclosing a spinning momentum wheel. A rocking plate circumscribes the housing and is compliantly connected thereto by a set of isolator struts and...
5816538 Dynamic decoupler for improved attitude control  
The invention provides a method for controlling the precession of a spinning spacecraft (20) which allows the spacecraft body to respond to an input torque without the nutation normally attendant...
5794892 Critical nutation dampling on spinning bodies via momentum wheels or similar devices  
A method and system of damping nutation of a spacecraft (20) having a desired spin axis along a first principal inertia axis utilizes a momentum source (28) oriented along a second principal...
5791598 Dynamic bias for orbital yaw steering  
A method and apparatus for steering a low-earth-orbit communication satellite requiring sun-orientation for solar-power accumulation is disclosed. Momentum-bias both maintains nadir pointing and...
5788188 Control of the attitude of a satellite in low orbit involving solar acquisition  
For controlling the attitude of the body of an earth satellite placed on a low orbit, values of components of the geomagnetic field of the earth are measured along three axes of a frame of...
5765780 Systematic vectored thrust calibration method for satellite momentum control  
A method of simultaneously performing a translational maneuver of a spacecraft by a thruster and dumping momentum from the spacecraft during a time period P. The method entails aligning the...
5758846 Satellite spin inversion using a single degree of freedom momentum storage device  
A method and system are disclosed for inverting a satellite spinning about a first desired spin axis to spin about a second desired spin axis substantially antiparallel to the first desired spin...
5751078 Reactionless, momentum compensated payload positioner  
A reactionless momentum compensated payload positioner adapted to be mounted on a supporting body for providing momentum compensation of an oscillatory and scanning payload and for suppressing...
5738309 Single axis correction for orbit inclination  
A method and system of orienting a payload of an orbiting spacecraft (14) to maintain a desired pointing profile in the presence of orbit inclination. A cone (12) is determined which is traced in...
5692707 Universal spacecraft attitude steering control system  
A method and system of attitude steering and momentum management for a spacecraft suitable over a wide range of orbit altitude and inclination parameters and a similar wide range of mission...
5683060 Air vehicle  
An air vehicle that includes a body lower portion, a body intermediate portion, body lower portion, a solar panel, elevating apparatus, gimbling apparatus, and inflatable landing gear. The body...
5681012 Spacecraft control with skewed control moment gyros  
A method of and system for applying single gimbal control moment gyros to spacecraft attitude control employing two control moment gyros with nominal spin axes anti-parallel and gimbal axes...
5670780 Device providing real-time orientation and direction of an object  
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for providing instantaneous real-time information concerning the attitude of an object. When the speed of the object to which the apparatus is attached is known,...
5667171 Satellite spin axis stabilization using a single degree of freedom transverse momentum storage device  
Methods and systems for stabilizing satellite spin about an intermediate inertia axis (Z) are disclosed. A set of gyros (22) sense the X component and the Y component of the angular velocity of the...
5655735 Post transition momentum management  
A low cost, fuel efficient solution to the problem of avoiding high yaw errors in communications satellites after station keeping maneuvers is achieved by adding a selectable function to the LTMM...
5628267 Oscillation suppression device and ship provided with the same  
An oscillation suppression device is provided for attenuating oscillation of an object to be controlled by a gyro torque of a control moment gyro having a flywheel rotating at a high speed. The...
5611505 Spacecraft energy storage, attitude steering and momentum management system  
A system for providing energy storage, attitude steering, and momentum management of a spacecraft is shown using a pair of gimbaled flywheels. Two flywheels are positioned with spin axes nominally...
5610820 Minimum propellant, zero momentum spacecraft attitude control system  
A zero-momentum spacecraft's attitude is controlled by determining the torque required about a control axis to maintain the desired attitude, and, during each of recurrent control cycles, enabling...
5608634 Low noise spacecraft body rate sensing arrangement for attitude control  
A spacecraft is controlled by a composite attitude signal including two components with different passbands. In one embodiment, a spacecraft attitude control system includes an attitude sensor and...
5597142 Spacecraft acquisition of orientation by scan of earth sensor field of view  
A spacecraft orientation procedure, in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention, is practiced with a sun sensor to bring the x (roll) axis of the spacecraft parallel to a ray of the sun,...
5582368 Reaction wheel speed observer system  
A spacecraft (10) includes and attitude sensor (16) for generating sensed attitude signals. A controllable drive arrangement (238) is coupled to a reaction wheel (46), for driving it in response to...
5556058 Spacecraft attitude determination using sun sensor, earth sensor, and space-to-ground link  
A method and system for determining the general three-axis attitude measurement for a spacecraft is disclosed. The system provides a cost-effective attitude measurement system for geosynchronous...
5476239 Gyro platform assembly with a spinning vehicle  
A gyro platform assembly for determining the coning rate of a spinning and oning vehicle. A rotatable gimbal is attached to the vehicle such that the axis of rotation of the gimbal is in line with...
5474263 Reaction wheel and method of safing wheel  
An improved reaction wheel assembly and method is provided whereby a reaction wheel assembly contains a safing mechanism for securing the assembly. A rotor shaft assembly and bearings are provided...
5452869 On-board three-axes attitude determination and control system  
A method and system (12) for controlling the attitude of a spacecraft during its transfer orbit using an on-board, stand-alone, three-axes attitude determination and control system. The system...
5441222 Attitude control of spinning spacecraft  
The attitude of a spinning spacecraft (20) whose spin axis is substantially in the plane of the orbit is controlled without the use of reaction control thrusters. A two-axis gimbal (24) on which a...
5437420 High torque double gimbal control moment gyro  
A system and related method is provided for rapidly repointing spacecraft through the application of a high torque, of a gyroscope in which braking means (20, 22) provided on a gimbal (16, 18) is...
5354016 Pivoted wheel roll control with automatic offset  
A 3-axis stabilized spacecraft includes roll and yaw magnetic torquers, and a momentum wheel oriented with its spin axis orthogonal to, and pivotable about, the roll axis. Roll control may be...
5337981 Method and apparatus for compensating for solar torque transients on a satellite during a solar eclipse  
This invention discloses a method for determining when an orbiting satellite (10) is eclipsed from the sun in order to remove control torques to the satellite (10) which compensate for the...
5315158 Integrated roll control and power supply system and method  
An integrated roll control and power supply system for a missile includes a pair of flywheel-motor-generator (FMG) units, a pair of power flow control (PFC) units coupled between the FMG units and...
Matches 101 - 150 out of 276 < 1 2 3 4 5 6 >