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:
Mar. 07, 2000
Filed:
Feb. 12, 1998
Applicant:
Inventors:
Richard A Fowell, Culver City, CA (US);
Qinghong W Wang, Torrance, CA (US);
Assignee:
Hughes Electronics Corporation, El Segundo, CA (US);
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B64G / ; B64G / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
244165 ; 244164 ; 244169 ;
Abstract
Structures and methods are provided to effect satellite maneuvers in the presence of disturbance torques with enhanced fuel efficiency. A thruster control loop is combined with a wheel control loop in which the wheels respond to an estimate of the disturbance torques (e.g., an angular acceleration estimate, a thruster torque command or a filtered thruster torque command) to create a counteracting gyroscopic torque. Simulations of the invention's methods have shown they have the authority of all-thruster control systems and fuel efficiency that rivals that that of all-wheel control systems.