The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 29, 2019
Filed:
Dec. 04, 2017
Space Systems/loral, Llc, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Douglas G. Burr, San Jose, CA (US);
Space Systems/Loral, LLC, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A spacecraft includes an antenna reflector coupled with an antenna pointing mechanism (APM), a beam forming network including variable amplitude and phase (VAP) adjusting arrangements, a tracking feed that receives a beacon signal by way of the reflector, and an autotrack receiver that measures pointing errors of the reflector from the received beacon signal and outputs corresponding pointing errors to the APM controller and to a VAP element controller. The antenna reflector is illuminated by radiating feed elements configured as a phased array that produces, in a far field of the reflector, a set of user beams. The APM controller causes the APM to adjust the reflector pointing, at a frequency less than f, to reduce the measured pointing errors. The VAP element controller adjusts pointing of the user beams by adjusting beam forming coefficients of the VAP adjusting arrangements at a second frequency greater than f.