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. 30, 1991
Filed:
Jun. 22, 1989
Douglas R Jungwirth, Reseda, CA (US);
A Phillip Simpson, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA (US);
Mitsuo Kawahara, Perris, CA (US);
Seymour Levine, Topanga, CA (US);
John M Kennel, Santa Ana, CA (US);
Northrop Corporation, Hawthorne, CA (US);
Abstract
A star tracker for generating positional information for a vehicle includes a telescope 40 having multiple fields of view for imaging stellar objects. The telescope includes a plurality of radiation detectors 58 and an input lens 45 comprised of, in one embodiment of the invention, a plurality of holographic elements 45a and 45b. The holographic elements direct incident radiation originating from a plurality of stellar objects to an associated one of the radiation detectors. In another embodiment the multiple field of view telescope is comprised of a monocentric ball lens 80. The tracker may further include a multiplexer 60 for sequentially reading out a signal from each of the radiation detectors and a controller 62 coupled to the multiplexer for receiving the signals and for determining from the positions of the stellar objects imaged by the telescope a position of the vehicle.