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:
Aug. 27, 2002
Filed:
May. 05, 2000
Keith Reckdahl, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Birgit Sauer, Cupertino, CA (US);
Space Systems/Loral, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A spacecraft orbit control system and method that provides orbit control of a spacecraft. The system comprises the spacecraft, one or more electric and/or chemical thrusters disposed on the spacecraft, and a control processor having control outputs coupled to the plurality of thrusters. An orbit control algorithm is implemented that determines the current orbit of the spacecraft, determines whether or not to perform stationkeeping, determines desired changes in certain orbit parameters if stationkeeping is to be performed, determines thruster firings that accomplish the desired orbit parameter changes, and fires the thrusters to perform spacecraft stationkeeping and provide spacecraft longitude control. The present invention may be used with any type of orbit determination procedure (such as GPS or ranging, with or without orbit propagation) and any type of stationkeeping algorithm that calculates thruster firings from desired orbit-parameter corrections.