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. 17, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 08, 2001
John E. Davis, Claremont, CA (US);
The Boeing Company, Seattle, WA (US);
Abstract
An optical sensor includes dual fields of view including a panoramic field of view spanning 360° in azimuth angle in a direction perpendicular to an axis of the sensor, and a limb-looking field of view non-perpendicular to the axis for viewing the limb of the earth. Both fields of view are imaged onto annular regions of one of more focal plane arrays comprising pixels arranged in a rectangular array of rows and columns. The sensor is used in a method for capturing rate and direction of rotation of a satellite about its axes and for detecting orientation of the satellite about two of its axes. Rate and direction are determined by finding the center of the earth relative to axes of the focal plane array based on the image of the earth limb from the panoramic field of view, and comparing the earth center location at a series of sequential times. The rate and position information are used for stabilizing an initially tumbling satellite after tip-off. Once the satellite is stabilized, its orientation is detected by finding the earth center location on the focal plane array based on the earth limb image from the limb-looking optics of the sensor. In one embodiment of the invention, both fields of view are imaged onto concentric inner and outer ring-shaped regions of the same focal plane array.