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. 30, 2000
Filed:
May. 14, 1997
Christopher M Cosner, Manhattan Beach, CA (US);
Scott M Matsunami, Chatsworth, CA (US);
David L Behrin, Culver City, CA (US);
Hughes Electronics Corporation, El Segundo, CA (US);
Abstract
An agile, spinning spacecraft has a first body portion and a second body portion which is rotatably coupled about a first rotational axis to the first body portion. A pair of planar solar cell arrays are rotatably coupled to the second body portion along a second rotational axis that is preferably orthogonal to the first rotational axis. The first body portion can be spun if desired and the first rotational axis can be directed by an attitude control system to have selected orientations. The solar cell arrays are rotated about the first and second rotational axes in accordance with steering laws which maintain the arrays in an orthogonal relationship with a Sun line.