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. 18, 1989
Filed:
Feb. 29, 1988
Subhash C Garg, San Jose, CA (US);
Mahabaleshwar K Bhat, San Jose, CA (US);
Ford Aerospace Corporation, Newport Beach, CA (US);
Abstract
An attitude control system for a three-axis controlled spacecraft (1) in which the location of thrusters causes significant cross-coupling torques. A thruster command conditioning electronics module (TCCEM) (3) is positioned between the conventional roll, pitch, and yaw loop controllers (41-43) and the thrusters (61-63). The TCCEM (3) converts spacecraft-axis-based torque requirement signals (TDX, TDY, TDZ) emanating from the loop controllers (41-43) into scalar quantities (UL, UM, UN) that are input to thruster modulators (51-53) that turn on one or more thrusters of the thruster pairs (L,M,N). The TCCEM (3) causes the spacecraft (1) attitude to be adjusted as commanded by the torque requirement signals (TDX, TDY TDZ) despite the presence of the cross-coupling. Two embodiments are illustrated: a working embodiment in which cross-coupling torques are produced about two axes (Y,Z), and a more general embodiment in which cross-coupling torques are present about all three axes (X,Y,Z).