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. 01, 1997
Filed:
Jul. 21, 1995
Robert W Astheimer, Fairfield, CT (US);
EDO Corporation, Barnes Engineering Division, Shelton, CT (US);
Abstract
A method is provided for greatly increasing the ratio of direct sunlight to earthshine in a sun sensor used on a spacecraft which is orbiting the earth and is used for the attitude determination of spacecraft with respect to the sun illuminated earth. The sun sensor is provided with a detector in which radiation applied thereto is restricted to a spectral region where the earth's atmosphere is extremely absorbent. Therefore, the detector only receives radiation in that spectral region directly from the sun, while any reflected light from the earth in the selected spectral region is absorbed by the earth's atmosphere, thereby never reaching the detector. One suitable spectral region is the ultraviolet absorption band from 200-290 nm and a UV enhanced silicon detector would be used in the sun sensor.