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:
Oct. 13, 1992
Filed:
Mar. 01, 1990
David G Hoag, Medway, MA (US);
Charles Stark Drapes Laboratory, Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
A laser pointing system directs a laser beam at one face of a steering mirror to produce a steered reflected beam. A highly attenuated portion of the laser beam passes through the mirror leaving at a second side, which side also reflects a stellar field. A star of the stellar field and the attenuated beam are both imaged on a star tracker. The mirror is moved so the two images coincide, thus aligning the steered beam parallel to the direction of the star. A gyro package detects changes in the system orientation to update the mirror reference position, and a processor provides command coordinates to move the beam from the stellar coordinates and cause it to point in a selected target direction.