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:
Jul. 07, 2020
Filed:
Sep. 20, 2017
Space Systems/loral, Llc, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Andrew E. Turner, Mountain View, CA (US);
Douglas Burr, San Jose, CA (US);
Space Systems/Loral, LLC, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
Described herein is a satellite communications system that includes: two or more satellites using laser communications, and a communications relay aircraft adapted for flying at altitudes above clouds. The communications relay aircraft includes: a laser communications module to communicate with the satellite using laser communication and a Radio Frequency (RF) communications module to communicate with RF equipment at or near ground level using cloud-penetrating RF communications. The RF communications module is configured to take data received as laser communication and generate a corresponding RF transmission containing the data. The laser communications module is configured to take data received as RF communication and to generate a corresponding laser transmission containing the data.