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:
Aug. 22, 1995
Filed:
Nov. 17, 1993
Bernard M Anzel, El Segundo, CA (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for satellite station keeping is disclosed in which four thrusters are mounted on the anti-nadir face of the satellite with their direction of thrust passing through the center of mass of the satellite. The thrust lines of the north pair (20, 22) of thrusters and the south (24, 26) pair of thrusters make an angle .theta. with the satellite north-south axis in a northern and southern direction respectively. The thrusters are laterally separated and slewed by an angle .alpha. about the north-south axis. Each thruster produces three components of .DELTA.V, i.e. normal, tangential and radial (toward the Earth), thereby providing complete control of the three orbit vectors, inclination, eccentricity and mean motion. In the event of failure of a thruster, the thruster diagonally opposite the failed thruster is shutdown and the remaining diagonal pair of thrusters is used to maintain station keeping.