195results about "Using photons" patented technology

A method and apparatus for deploying a group of panels. An apparatus comprises a group of panels in a folded configuration against a side of a spacecraft, a group of flexible members connected to the group of panels, and an interface system associated with the group of panels and the group of flexible members. The interface system is configured to move the group of panels from the folded configuration to a deployed configuration when the group of flexible members is extended from the spacecraft.

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 two orthogonal axes using solar panel current sensors. The system and method may also include simultaneously determining spacecraft attitude using a star sensor. The system is applicable to spacecraft operating in a solar wing-stowed configuration.

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 processor is coupled to the inertial sensor and the position sensor and comprises an estimator, a position measurement predictor having a filter, a comparator and a control shaping block, said estimator generating a vehicle position based upon the dynamic condition sensor, said position measurement predictor generating an estimated position measurement in response to the reported vehicle position and a matched frequency response to the movement signal, said control shaping block generating an actuator control signal in response to a comparison of the estimated position measurement and the reported vehicle position.

The invention provides a novel, low-cost, spin-stabilized lander architecture capable (with appropriate system scaling tailored to the attributes of the target) of performing a soft-landing on a solar-system body such as Earth's Moon, Mars, Venus, the moons of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, selected near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, comets and Kuiper belt objects and even large human-made objects, and also moving about on the surface of the target solar-system body after the initial landing in movement akin to hopping.

Methods and apparatus are presented for spacecraft operation in which a control problem is formulated using a control law or steering law as a path constraint or as a dynamic constraint, and the control problem is solved to provide a guidance command trajectory for use in operating spacecraft control momentum gyroscopes to guide the spacecraft from an initial state to a desired final state.

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 navigation Kalman filter, attitude determination of the visible sensor with gyros, star trackers and a Kalman filter, pointing and rate commands for tracking the target, and an attitude controller. An analytical, steady-state, three-axis, six-state Kalman filter is provided for attitude determination. The system provides improved functionality and precision for relative navigation, attitude determination, pointing, and tracking for rendezvous. Kalman filters are designed for the closed-loop system to allow for pointing the laser rangefinder to a target even if a visible sensor, a laser rangefinder, gyros and a star tracker are misaligned and the LOS angle measurements from the visible sensor are interrupted.

The invention set forth herein describes propulsive guidance methods and apparatus for controlling and shaping an atmospheric skip reentry trajectory for a space vehicle. Embodiments of the invention may utilize a powered explicit guidance algorithm to provide a closed-loop control method for controlling a space vehicle during a skip reentry maneuver.

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 configured to: determine a beta angle, the beta angle being the angle between a sun vector and an orbit plane of the spacecraft, and alternately engage either a first mode or a second mode to provide attitude and antenna steering based on the beta angle.

A propulsion system for the orbit control of a satellite in Earth orbit driven at a rate of displacement along an axis V tangential to the orbit comprises two propulsion modules, fixed to the satellite, and facing one another relative to the plane of the orbit, each of the propulsion modules comprising, in succession: a motorized rotation link about an axis parallel to the axis V; an offset arm; and a plate supporting two thrusters, suitable for delivering a thrust on an axis, arranged on the plate on either side of a plane P at right angles to the axis V passing through a centre of mass of the satellite; each of the two thrusters being oriented in such a way that the thrust axes of the two thrusters are parallel to one another and at right angles to the axis V.

A method of and apparatus for determining and controlling the inertial attitude of a spinning artificial satellite without using a suite of inertial gyroscopes. The method and apparatus operate by tracking three astronomical objects near the Earth's ecliptic pole and the satellite's and / or star tracker's spin axis and processing the track information. The method and apparatus include steps and means for selecting preferably three astronomical objects using a histogram method and determining a square of a first radius (R12) of a track of a first astronomical object; determining a square of a second radius (R22) of a track of a second astronomical object; determining a square of a third radius (R32) of a track of a third astronomical object; determining the inertial attitude of the spin axis using the squares of the first, second, and third radii (R12, R22, and R32) to calculate pitch, yaw, and roll rate; determining a change in the pitch and yaw of the artificial satellite; and controlling on-board generated current flow to various orthogonally-disposed current-carrying loops to act against the Earth's magnetic field and to apply gyroscopic precession to the spinning satellite to correct and maintain its optimum inertial attitude.

Disclosed herein, in certain embodiments, is a method of altering the stability of unstable space debris. In some embodiments, the method further comprises changing the orbit of the unstable space debris.

A method of controlling attitude of a spacecraft during a transfer orbit operation is provided. The method includes providing a slow spin rate, determining the attitude of the spacecraft using a unified sensor set, and controlling the attitude of the spacecraft using a unified control law. The use of a unified set of sensors and a unified control law reduces spacecraft complexity, cost, and weight.

A thruster (1) has a main chamber (6) defined within a tube (2). The tube has a longitudinal axis which defines an axis (4) of thrust; an injector (8) injects ionizable gas within the tube, at one end of the main chamber. An ionizer (124) is adapted to ionize the injected gas within the main chamber (6). A first magnetic field generator (12, 14) and an electromagnetic field generator (18) are adapted to generate a magnetized ponderomotive accelerating field downstream of said ionizer (124) along the direction of thrust on said axis (4), The thruster (1) ionizes the gas, and subsequently accelerates both electrons and ions by the magnetized ponderomotive force.

A method and apparatus for maneuvering a satellite in orbit to alternately optimize the collection of solar energy and to take sensor data of terrestrial objects is disclosed The longitudinal axis of a large payload package is oriented perpendicular to the orbital plane to minimize the disturbance torque due to gravity gradient, and to allow simple rotation about the axis for attitude change between optimal Sun and optimal ground coverage.

Provided is a method and system for maneuvering a first spacecraft relative to a nearby second spacecraft that occupies a finite volume of space including obstacles in the vicinity of the second from a measured present relative position to a desired ending relative position. A trajectory is computed for the first spacecraft from the present relative position to the ending relative position using the A* algorithm. One or more thrusters of the first spacecraft are then fired. The first spacecraft's relative position and velocity are then measured and compared to the computed trajectory.

Solar power satellite system for transmitting microwave energy to the earth and a method of arranging the solar power satellite system about the sun for same. The solar power satellite system comprises a space-based power generation unit disposed in a planetary orbit about the sun. A photovoltaic cell on the space-based power generation unit collects solar energy that is then converted to microwave energy to be beamed to the earth. A ground-based rectenna receives the microwave energy and converts the microwave energy to electricity that is transmitted to an end user. The solar power satellite system and method provides electrical power on earth day or night and regardless of atmospheric conditions. Also, surface area of the solar panel on the space-based power generation unit orbiting about the sun is much less than the surface area required of a ground-based solar panel or a solar panel in earth orbit.

This invention deals with novel method and apparatus for positioning and motion control by rapid-response motorless linear motion, angular deflection, and continuous rotational motion utilizing the force due to electrons, ions, and / or neutrals. Thus forces and torques are produced without the use of internal moving parts. Control is achieved without recourse to magnetic fields, by means of high electric fields which may be attained at relatively low voltages. At low voltages, the instant invention exceeds the capability of conventional systems. It can perform dynamic motion control over a wide range of dimensions and signal bandwidth with independent amplitude and frequency modulation. Since there are no internal moving parts, the instant invention is the most adapted for fabrication at the micro and nanotechnology realms. Furthermore it provides less costly and greater ease of manufacture from the nano-to the macro-realm.

The method serves to place a space vehicle, such as a satellite, on a target orbit such as the orbit adapted to normal operation of the space vehicle and starting from an elliptical initial orbit that is significantly different from, and in particular more eccentric than the target orbit. The space vehicle is caused to describe a spiral trajectory made up of a plurality of intermediate orbits while a set of high specific impulse thrusters mounted on the space vehicle are fired continuously and without interruption, thereby causing the spiral trajectory to vary so that on each successive revolution, at least during a first stage of the maneuver, perigee altitude increases, apogee altitude varies in a desired direction, and any difference in inclination between the intermediate orbit and the target orbit is decreased, after which, at least during a second stage of the maneuver, changes in perigee altitude and in apogee altitude are controlled individually in predetermined constant directions, while any difference in inclination between the intermediate orbit and the target orbit continues to be reduced until the apogee altitude, the perigee altitude, and the orbital inclination of an intermediate orbit of the space vehicle have substantially the values of the target orbit.

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 transfer time and orbit transfer fuel. The spacecraft determines its orbit using a GPS-based system to determine the spacecraft orbital elements. Based on the measured orbit error, corrected co-state parameters are calculated and used to generate an updated thrust trajectory. The corrections are calculated using an innovative numerical procedure, carried out repetitively at a fixed interval until the target geosynchronous orbit is achieved.

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 camera system and an output of said gyroscope system into a stream of data, and a flight computer responsive to said stream of data for determining from the star camera system output and the gyroscope system output the attitude of the aerospace vehicle.

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 residuals describing the difference between observed star positions and predicted positions based on inertial measurements, and solves those equations to generate refined estimates of the spacecraft state estimates.

A system (30) for adjusting the orientation of a spacecraft adapted for use with a satellite (10). The system (30) includes a first control circuit (32, 38, 40) for canceling any momentum of the spacecraft via a counter-rotating spacecraft bus (16, 18). A second controller (32, 42, 44, 46, 48) orients the spacecraft via the application of internal spacecraft forces. In a specific embodiment, the spacecraft bus (16, 18) serves a dual use as storage section and includes a mass (16) having a moment of inertia on the same order as the moment of inertia of the satellite (10). The satellite (10) includes a bus section (16) and a payload section (14). The mass (16) includes the bus section (16). The first control circuit (32, 38, 40) runs software to selectively spin the mass (16) to cancel the momentum of the satellite (10). The software computes an actuator control signal, via a computer (32), that drives a first actuator (38) that spins the mass (16). The first control circuit (32, 38, 40) further includes a circuit for determining the inertial angular rate of the satellite (10) that includes a gyroscope sensor package (34) in communication with the computer (32). The gyroscope sensor package (34) provides a rate signal to the computer (32) that is representative of the momentum of the satellite (10). The computer (32) runs software for generating the actuator control signal in response to the receipt of the rate signal from the gyroscope sensor package (34). The second controller (32, 42, 44, 46, 48) includes a first reaction wheel (20) having an axis of rotation (26) approximately perpendicular to an axis of rotation (28) of a second reaction wheel (22). The first and second reaction wheels (20, 22) are rigidly mounted to the spacecraft bus (18, 16) and are free to spin about their respective axis. The first and second reaction wheels (20, 22) are selectively spun via first and second actuators (44, 48), respectively, in response to the receipt of first and second steering control signals, respectively.

A system and method for supplying thrust to a structure, such as a satellite or spacecraft, for the purposes of station keeping and attitude control of the structure in low-gravity (orbital) and zero-gravity environments. The system includes devices for emitting energy beams and targets impacted by the energy beams to cause ablation of the targets. The beam-emitting devices and targets are adapted to cooperate and cause the structure to selectively undergo translational and / or rotational motion in reaction to the motion of material ablated from the targets. The position, alignment, and / or attitude of the structure can thereby be controlled in a zero or low-gravity environment by selectively emitting the energy beams at the targets.

An apparatus and method including a deployable spacecraft mount for electric propulsion is disclosed. A typical apparatus includes a spacecraft body, a deployable element having at least two basic positions including a compact stowed position and a deployed position of the element and an electric thruster disposed on the deployable element where the electric thruster is disposed to mitigate negative plume effects in the deployed position that would be present in stowed position. The deployable element can be a radiator and can optionally be disposed on a second deployable payload module. Further, deployable elements can be selective deployed such that some electric thrusters can be used to assist in transfer orbit while undeployed elements help retain heat.

A low orbit optical imaging satellite has a long thin satellite body housing an optical telescope arrangement. A major part of the telescope arrangement has its optical axis roughly parallel to the direction of elongation and includes a mirror arrangement deployed to direct a line of sight of the optical telescope out sideways from the direction of elongation. The transverse dimensions of the satellite body are preferably minimized to be close to the optical aperture dimension of the optical telescope, thereby providing a high ballistic coefficient and high orbit lifetime for orbits in the low thermosphere.

The present system and methods enable simultaneous momentum dumping and orbit control of a spacecraft, such as a geostationary satellite. Control equations according to the present system and methods generate accurate station-keeping commands quickly and efficiently, reducing the number of maneuvers needed to maintain station and allowing station-keeping maneuvers to be performed with a single burn. Additional benefits include increased efficiency in propellant usage, and extension of the satellite's lifespan. The present system and methods also enable tighter orbit control, reduction in transients and number of station-keeping thrusters aboard the satellite. The present methods also eliminate the need for the thrusters to point through the center of mass of the satellite, which in turn reduces the need for dedicated station-keeping thrusters. The present methods also facilitate completely autonomous orbit control and control using Attitude Control Systems (ACS).

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 predictive operational mode based on whether a thrust trajectory vector is in the proximity region in order to provide attitude control. The proximity region is determined based on an angle between the thrust trajectory vector and a sun vector. For example, the angle is about 20-30 degrees. The system engages the predictive operational mode when the thrust trajectory vector enters the proximity region. When in the predictive operational mode, the system periodically re-calculates the thrust trajectory vector and determines where the thrust trajectory vector will exit the proximity region. Based on the determination with respect to where the thrust trajectory vector will exit the proximity region, the system provides appropriate attitude control adjustment with respect to gimbaled thrusters and solar arrays so as to reduce sun-pointing errors and keep the sun in a predetermined yaw / roll plane. The system can be used in a spacecraft including a satellite.

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 attitude of the slave payload and a master payload attitude at least in part from the plurality of slave attitude measurements, predicting the relative attitude between the slave payload attitude and the master payload attitude using the derived model, and estimating the relative attitude between the slave payload attitude and the master payload attitude at least in part from the predicted relative attitude between the slave payload attitude and the master payload attitude. Furthermore, the absolute attitude of the slave payload is computed using the relative attitude and the master payload attitude.