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:
Mar. 27, 2007
Filed:
Dec. 08, 2003
Suneel Ismail Sheikh, College Park, MD (US);
Darryll John Pines, Clarksville, MD (US);
Kent S. Wood, Chevy Chase, MD (US);
Paul Shelton Ray, Alexandria, VA (US);
Michael N. Lovellette, Seabrook, MD (US);
Suneel Ismail Sheikh, College Park, MD (US);
Darryll John Pines, Clarksville, MD (US);
Kent S. Wood, Chevy Chase, MD (US);
Paul Shelton Ray, Alexandria, VA (US);
Michael N. Lovellette, Seabrook, MD (US);
University of Maryland, College Park, MD (US);
Abstract
A system and method for navigation utilizing sources of pulsed celestial radiation are provided. A spacecraft, satellite, or other vehicle () has a pulse sensor () mounted thereto for detecting signal pulses () generated by a plurality of pulsars or other celestial objects (). The detected signal pulses () are synchronously averaged at the known period of the pulsar or other celestial object () with respect to a timer (). Timer () measures the pulse time of arrival at the pulse sensor () by comparing the pulse signal () with a pulse shape template (), and a processing means () calculates the offset time between the measured pulse time of arrival at sensor () with a calculated pulse time of arrival at the solar system barycenter (SSBC). The positions and pulse profile characteristics of the pulsars () are stored in a digital memory () and combining the calculated time offset with the known positions of pulsars (), the navigational position, velocity, attitude and time of spacecraft () with respect to the SSBC can be calculated.