Messerschmitt-bolkow-blohm Gmbh

Reinhold Lutz

Karl Keller

Bernd Kunkel

A measuring device for the location and attitude determination of an object, for example, of a space craft for the purpose of docking. At the object several light sources are located, each intensity-modulated with a different code frequency. Optics of the measuring device reproduce the object on a position-sensitive detector. On the basis of its output signals, the image coordinates of the light sources are computed by way of an evaluating device using a frequency multiplexing process.

Measuring device for location and attitude determination of an object

A device for acceleration measurements and, in particular, for gravitational field measurements in, for example, earth orbits, which has a body arranged movably in a force field, the position of which can be detected by a position location device. The force acting upon the body is anisotropic and, at least in the direction of the acceleration to be determined, is not a linear function of the deflection of the body from its resting position. In a preferred further development the body is suspended by four tension springs, which in the resting position of the body are arranged in a plane perpendicular to the direction of the acceleration to be determined, and which each form right angles with the adjacent spring. With 3 separate optoelectronic position detector receivers plus corresponding illuminators which provides some measurement redundancy, all acceleration planes can be measured with a great dynamic range. In the main direction, forces as small as 10.sup.-12 g will be measurable. With the position detectors, the device is much simpler and more compact than interferometric devices at equal precision. Other embodiments are described.

Growing community of inventors

Bernhaupten, Germany

Reinhold Lutz