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:
May. 05, 2020
Filed:
Jul. 27, 2017
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US);
Juha-Pekka J. Laine, Boston, MA (US);
Robin Mark Adrian Dawson, Watertown, MA (US);
Daniel M. Meiser, Providence, RI (US);
Benjamin F. Lane, Sherborn, MA (US);
Eric T. Hoke, Somerville, MA (US);
Matthew T. Jamula, Brighton, MA (US);
Stephen P. Smith, Acton, MA (US);
Matthew A. Sinclair, Stoneham, MA (US);
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
A star tracker includes a lens slice, a pixelated image sensor, an ephemeral database and a processor configured to estimate attitude, orientation and/or location of the star tracker based on an image of one or more celestial objects projected by the lens slice onto the pixelated image sensor. The lens slice is smaller and lighter than an optically comparable conventional lens, thereby making the star tracker less voluminous and less massive than conventional star trackers. A lens slice is elongated along one axis. Optical performance along the elongation axis is comparable to that of a conventional circular lens of equal diameter. Although optical performance along a width axis, perpendicular to the elongation axis, of a lens slice can be significantly worse than that of a conventional lens, use of two orthogonal lens slices provides adequate optical performance in both axes, and still saves volume and mass over a conventional lens.