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:
Sep. 04, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 06, 2000
Applicant:
Inventors:
Scott W. Tilley, Belmont, CA (US);
Thomas J. Holmes, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Keith J. Reckdahl, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Assignee:
Space Systems/Loral, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B64G 1/29 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
B64G 1/29 ;
Abstract
An onboard attitude control system is constructed to utilize a four reaction wheel system having a reference axis, wherein at least three of the reaction wheel spin axes are oriented obliquely to the reference axis. Current attitude is estimated based on uploaded orbital data, onboard sensed earth and sun position data, and attitude data sensed by a three axes gyroscope system. Current attitude is compared to mission attitude to calculate an error which is transformed to a trihedral axes adjustment command to actuate the reaction wheel system.