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:
Jun. 24, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 15, 2001
Applicant:
Inventors:
Thomas Randolph, San Carlos, CA (US);
David Oh, Cupertino, CA (US);
Fischer Guenter, Livermore, CA (US);
Assignee:
Space Systems/Loral, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
F03H 5/00 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
F03H 5/00 ;
Abstract
An electric propulsion (EP) device is used to enable, a stationkeeping satellite to track a prescribed stationkeeping Earth orbit. EP propellant and electric power are throttled to vary the thrust and specific impulse of the EP device. A solar array provides electrical power during each Earth day cycle with excess power above that needed by the spacecraft stored by a battery. Software control manages the voltage, current and burn time to minimize propellant usage and impact to the system.