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. 27, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 13, 2002
Homer D. Stevens, Redwood City, CA (US);
Keith Reckdahl, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Xenophon Price, Redwood City, CA (US);
Space Systems/Loral, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method for RF autotracking multiple antennas (preferably located on a spacecraft) to compensate for disturbances experienced by the antennas. The system and method estimate high frequency errors associated with all of the antennas. The high frequency errors may be estimated using a currently selected antenna and a high-pass filter. The high frequency errors may be estimated using a sensor mounted on the spacecraft, such as a gyro or star tracker, or may be estimated using information, such as planned thruster firings, for example, from a spacecraft attitude control system. Alternatively, the high frequency information may be estimated using any combination of data from these sources. Low frequency errors are estimated using measurements from each selected antenna. The algorithm implemented in the present invention explicitly accounts for the frequency content of each disturbance source. The present invention only requires sampling from one antenna at any one time, reducing the necessary hardware to only one RF receiver.