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:
May. 09, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 01, 1998
Hiroaki Miyoshi, Tokyo, JP;
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A satellite capturing/tracking apparatus including: an antenna drive unit for driving an antenna in such a manner that said antenna is directed to a direction along which electromagnetic waves are transmitted from either a data relay satellite or a space station in response to a capturing/tracking command; an orbit/position detecting unit for receiving clock signals transmitted from a plurality of GPS satellites to calculate and output the present orbit and position of said apparatus as orbit/position information; a first storage unit for previously storing therein a capturing/tracking sequence program with relative time instants, produced by an azimuth angle and an elevation angle of either said data relay satellite or said space station; a second storage unit for storing therein data used to define a relationship between said azimuth angle, said elevation angle, and the orbit/position of said apparatus with respect to either said data relay satellite or said space station; and a capturing/tracking control unit for producing a capturing/tracking command for capturing/tracking either said data relay satellite or said space station based on said orbit/position information of said orbit/position detecting unit, said capturing/tracking sequence program of said first storage unit, and said relationship data of said second storage unit; whereby, while data is communicated via said data relay satellite between the space station and an earth station, said space station and the data relay satellite are mutually captured/tracked with each other.