Ast Research, Inc.

Roger R Taur

Hiroyuki Okamoto

Ted Mitsuteru Sugiki

A method of incrementally increasing a revenue stream generated by an incrementally built satellite communication system comprising the following steps: (A) planning an initial constellation phase of the satellite communication system to cover an initial predetermined coverage area; (B) building the initial number of satellites for the initial constellation phase of the satellite communication system; (C) launching each satellite to fill the initial constellation phase of the satellite communication system; and (D) collecting an initial revenue stream generated by the initial constellation phase of the satellite communication system. The initial constellation phase of the satellite communication system comprises an initial number of satellites and is substantially completed to carry an initial communication traffic for the initial predetermined coverage area. The initial revenue stream can be used for building the subsequent phase of the planned satellite communication system.

Business model of the co-locating scheme of low earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary (GEO) satellite systems

Apparatus and method of using satellite ranging channels for transmitting 3-d video signals for space applications. The method comprises the following steps:(A) performing a standard ranging operation to estimate a distance between an active satellite and a passive/target satellite; (B) transmitting to a (TTC) a set of ranging data for estimating the distance between the active satellite and the passive/target satellite by using at least one standard ranging channel; (C) disabling standard ranging operation in order to free each standard satellite ranging channel for a video-ranging operation if the estimated distance between the active satellite and the passive/target satellite is less than a predetermined distance; (D) performing the video-ranging operation to estimate the distance between the active satellite and the passive/target satellite if the estimated distance between the active satellite and the passive/target satellite is less than the predetermined distance; (E) transmitting the plurality of images of the passive/target satellite obtained by the active satellite to the TTC) by using at least two standard satellite ranging channels; and (F) using the plurality of images of the passive/target satellite in order to perform a set of operations selected from the group consisting of: {capturing the passive/target satellite by the active satellite; detecting an outside damage in the passive/target satellite; and approaching the passive/target satellite by the active satellite in order to perform a set of repair services}.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Roger R Taur