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:
Sep. 29, 2026
Filed:
Jun. 22, 2022
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY (US);
John Allen Christian, Marietta, GA (US);
Paul Dickson Mckee, Averill Park, NY (US);
Michael Kudenov, Raleigh, NC (US);
Hoang Nguyen, Raleigh, NC (US);
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY (US);
Abstract
In an embodiment, there is provided a method for determining a spacecraft instantaneous velocity using starlight. The method includes determining, by a star pairing module, a plurality of star pairs in a selected star field image. The selected star field image includes a plurality of star images. The method includes estimating, by a line of sight estimation module, an apparent bearing direction to each star in at least some of the plurality of star pairs; determining, by the line of sight estimation module, a respective apparent inter-star angle for each star pair of the least some star pairs; and estimating, by a velocity estimation module, a spacecraft velocity to within a total velocity error based, at least in part, on the apparent inter-star angles.