Hughes Aircraft Company

Hughes Electronics Corporation

Jason M Wakugawa

Mir Akbar Ali

Kenneth M Brown

Ronald E Robbins

Lawrence S Gresko

A spacecraft attitude control system includes a Momentum Wheel Assembly (MWA) or a Reaction Wheel Assembly (RWA), containing a spinning flywheel, mounted by the use of a mounting bracket to a rotary gimbal which is mounted to spacecraft. The operating MWA/RWA unit is rotated by the rotary gimbal about the gimbal's axis of rotation generating a torque which is provide to the spacecraft, resulting in its movement. The system has the added advantage that the majority of the components are commercially available off-the-shelf products.

Spacecraft attitude control actuator and method

A filler composition having a coefficient of thermal expansion substantially equivalent to that of SiC foam and capable of fusing and integrally bonding to SiC foam. The filler composition is useful for bonding a surface layer to a SiC foam core for optical mirrors which are used in space applications and cryogenic detectors.

Glass bonded filler compositions for silicon carbide foam core mirrors

An optical bench (10) includes a pair of end plates (12, 14) rigidly interconnected by a plurality of tubular connecting members (16). The connecting members (16) are formed by chemically vapor-depositing silicon carbide on a mandrel (17) and result in high-precision surface finishes which do not require subsequent machining or surface treatment. The end plates (12, 14) are formed by casting a reaction-bonded silicon carbide into near-final shape. Socket holes (18) are formed in the end plates (12, 14) to receive the connecting members (16) which are secured to the end plates (12, 14) by brazing.

Lightweight optical bench and method of fabricating same

A lightweight mirror comprises a silicon carbide (SiC) foam core having a bulk density of approximately five percent. The mirror further comprises two solid facesheets each of which is integrally formed upon a surface of the SiC foam core, the facesheets being comprised of SiC. Upon a machined surface of one or both of the facesheets a further layer of SiC is deposited to reinforce the SiC facesheet and to provide an optically polishable surface. This outer layer of SiC may be deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques. After depositing this reinforcing layer of SiC, the layer is machined and polished to provide a mirror surface having a desired flatness and optical quality.

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Rolling Hills Estates, CA, United States of America

Jason M Wakugawa