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:
Apr. 13, 1982
Filed:
Feb. 05, 1980
Udo Renner, Leiden, NL;
Organisation Europeenne de Recherches Spatiales, Noordwijk, NL;
Abstract
A system for compensating the disturbance torques applied to a satellite, which eliminates the requirement for a thruster control loop. The disturbance torque itself is used as the compensating torque in order to super-impose to the incidental misalignment of the solar panel arrays an artificial misalignment that can cause the momentum vector to be adjusted to the desired direction in order to restore the correct attitude of the satellite. The direction of the momentum vector is controlled in orbit only by solar sailing, that is by organizing at prescribed times suitable manoeuvres of one of the solar panels in order to adjust the solar panel array configuration when the roll angle of the satellite exceeds a determined threshold value.