Lockheed Martin Corporation

Brian James Howley

Bruce Gregory Tiemann

Anthony C Kowalczyk

Michael L Tartaglia

Paul J Suni

Patrick Eliott Perkins

Alain Charles Carrier

David Carl Sadighi

John E Bergesen

Hunt W Small

An optical system can include a mirror that reflects incoming light to a sensor for detection. The position and/or orientation of the mirror can be controlled to reflect incoming light from different locations and/or directions. Position and/or orientation of the mirror may be tracked and/or detected by an optical position sensor. The position sensor can transmit a beam to a reflector on the mirror, and the reflected beam can be received by the position sensor. Characteristics of the reflected beam can be measured to determine the position and/or orientation of the mirror. For example, the beam can be used for interferometric and/or intensity measurements, which can then be correlated with a position and/or orientation of the mirror.

Optical systems with controlled mirror arrangements

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 position information management module (340). The reference trajectory management module (334) accesses reference trajectory data such as ground generated ephemeris data which is uplinked to a spacecraft through a communications unit (312). The position information management module (340) accesses and interprets position information such as Global Positioning System (GPS) measurement data to provide measured spacecraft positions. The parameter calculation module (338) calculates spacecraft position and velocity from the reference trajectory data. The error estimation module (336) compares the measured and calculated positions to provide a position difference, smoothes the position difference to filter anomalous data, and provides a correction term for the determination of corrected spacecraft orbital parameters such as position and velocity. The time rate of change of the correction term may be used to provide additional correction to the orbital parameters.

Real time position correction to ground generated spacecraft ephemeris

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Brian James Howley