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. 30, 1991
Filed:
Mar. 31, 1989
Applicant:
Inventor:
Nicholas Matthews, Plainsboro, NJ (US);
Assignee:
British Aerospace Public Limited Company, London, GB;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B64G / ; F41G / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
244164 ; 244171 ; 244003210 ;
Abstract
An Earth orbiting spacecraft (1) is returned to an Earth pointing attitude by means of a star sensor (6), Earth sensor (2), Sun sensor (4) and an angular momentum storage device. With the Sun sensor (4) locked on the Sun (5) the spacecraft is rotated until the star sensor (6) senses a predetermined brighter than magnitude 3 star such as Canopus (7). The angular momentum storage device is operated to preserve an attitude reference and the spacecraft (1) is further rotated by an angle .alpha. such that subsequent rotation around the angular momentum storage axis causes the Earth (3) to enter the view of the Earth sensor (2).