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:
Aug. 04, 2026
Filed:
Jan. 14, 2025
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Steven Lee Fisher-Stawinski, Buffalo Grove, IL (US);
Naeem Altaf, Round Rock, TX (US);
John Stern Alexander, Hampstead, NC (US);
Scott E. Schneider, Rolesville, NC (US);
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Described are techniques for harnessing the waste heat of a spacecraft to transmit data. A heat sink is thermally connected to the spacecraft. A heat sink refers to a component used to dissipate heat generated by components, such as electronics of a spacecraft, allowing the heat sink to radiate heat into a space vacuum environment. Furthermore, the system includes a modulation mechanism of the spacecraft connected to the heat sink, where the modulation mechanism selectively alters the waste heat thermal radiation emitted from the heat sink according to a signal. The emission of the waste heat thermal radiation from the heat sink at a particular frequency or pattern of pulses is used to encode data. In this manner, data can be transmitted in space in an energy efficient manner by harnessing the waste heat of the spacecraft to transmit data, which otherwise would be lost.