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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6290180 | Photocatalytic coatings on optical solar reflectors to decompose organic contaminants An optical solar reflector (OSR) for spacecraft having a thin film layer of photocatalytic coating material applied to the space-facing side of the OSR which is effective to maintain long term effectiveness of optical solar reflectors (OSR) by preventing/... | 09/18/2001 |
| 6239762 | Interleaved crossed-slot and patch array antenna for dual-frequency and dual polarization, with multilayer transmission-line feed network A crossed-slot antenna in a first ground plane has a first feed, in stripline form including a second ground plane, which underlies a portion of one of the orthogonal slots for exciting a first polarization. A conductive lip of the other slot extends thro... | 05/29/2001 |
| 6172655 | Ultra-short helical antenna and array thereof A short axial-mode helical antenna (10) includes a winding (12) including a conductor (20) helically wound about an axis (8). A first portion (22) of the winding is wound with a first pitch () on a segment of a cone (41) having a smaller diameter (... | 01/09/2001 |
| 6126115 | Apparatus for retaining and releasing a payload An apparatus for latching an object, such as a payload for a space vehicle, includes an expandible latch which is shifted between a relaxed open condition and a flexed closed condition by actuation of a pair of temperature-responsive members, such as shap... | 10/03/2000 |
| 6097835 | Projective pan sharpening methods and apparatus A projective panchromatic sharpening method and apparatus combines registered high spatial resolution panchromatic imagery and lower spatial resolution multispectral imagery to synthesize higher spatial resolution multispectral imagery. The degree of misr... | 08/01/2000 |
| 6084545 | Near-field calibration system for phase-array antennas A near-field calibration arrangement for a phased-array antenna determines the phase shifts or attenuation of the elemental control elements of the array. The calibration system includes a probe located in the near field, and a calibration tone generator.... | 07/04/2000 |
| 6050525 | Asymmetric open rosette constellations An asymmetric open rosette constellation has multiple inclined orbit planes distributed around 360° with the satellites asymmetrically spaced in the orbit planes. The satellites populate only a portion of each orbital plane so as to leave an open space i... | 04/18/2000 |
| 6049756 | System and method for avoiding collision between vector and solid objects An apparatus for analyzing a specified path A-B with respect to a specified obstacle determines if the path intersects the obstacle and determines a collision avoidance path when the path is determined to intersect the obstacle. The apparatus is preferabl... | 04/11/2000 |
| 6026337 | Microbolometer earth sensor assembly An earth sensor assembly for an orbiting spacecraft which includes a two dimensional microbolometer area array detector as the detective source for capturing full or partial infrared (IR) images of the earth. The earth sensor assembly further includes an ... | 02/15/2000 |
| 6002916 | Space-based server network architecture A space-based server network architecture (1) which permits on demand transfer of mission and control data between client satellites (14) in an orbit about earth and an earth station (20, 22, 24, 26) irrespective of the location of the client satellite (1... | 12/14/1999 |
| 5990750 | Amplifier and driver system with multichannel operation An RF amplifier includes a FET output stage and a driver. The FET is subject to long-term degradation in multiple-carrier use if its average gate current often exceeds a predetermined value. The random superposition of signal peaks of the multicarrier sig... | 11/23/1999 |
| 5950965 | Split shell spacecraft A modular spacecraft and fabrication method for producing a spacecraft of the kind that forms an enclosure and framework for installation of the external and internal subsystems of the spacecraft. The primary structure of the spacecraft is formed as a spl... | 09/14/1999 |
| 5925584 | Boron nitride-toughened single phase silicon aluminum oxynitride composite, article and method of making same Multiphase ceramic composites containing single phase silicon aluminum oxynitride and boron nitride wherein the boron nitride is one phase in the composite and the single phase silicon aluminum oxynitride is the matrix phase in the composite. The boron ni... | 07/20/1999 |
| 5905591 | Multi-aperture imaging system A multi-aperture imaging system for continuous dwell imaging of complex extended scenes which are not required to contain localized point sources. The multi-aperture imaging system includes a plurality of subaperture telescopes, each of which collect imag... | 05/18/1999 |
| 5891815 | Silica, boron nitride, aluminum nitride, alumina composite, article and method of making same Multiphase ceramic composites containing 47% to 52% by weight aluminum nitride, 23% to 27% by weight silica, 3% to 7% alumina and the balance boron nitride wherein the boron nitride is one phase in the composition and the reaction products of aluminum nit... | 04/06/1999 |
| 5884143 | Spacecraft with paralleled amplifiers and redundancy A spacecraft includes a plurality of paralleled RF amplifiers. Each paralleled power amplifier (206) includes a signal splitter (222) which produces two nominally equal-amplitude signals, and a signal combiner (242) which combines appropriately phased sig... | 03/16/1999 |
| 5850617 | System and method for route planning under multiple constraints A route planning mechanism receives a target set denoting a set of available targets, a set of target parameter thresholds for binning target parameters, a set of mission objectives and a corresponding set of mission thresholds for binning the mission par... | 12/15/1998 |
| 5845879 | Inflatable conformable fuel tank The invention discloses a deployable, inflatable conformable fuel tank assembly constructed to be installed at a certain location on an aircraft and to be retained at that certain location throughout the entire flight operation of the aircraft. The fuel t... | 12/08/1998 |
| 5825495 | Bright field illumination system A Bright Field Illumination system for inspecting a range of characteristically different kinds of defects, depressions, and ridges in a selected material surface. The system has an illumination source placed near a first focus of an elliptical reflector.... | 10/20/1998 |
| 5816313 | Pump, and earth-testable spacecraft capillary heat transport loop using augmentation pump and check valves A spacecraft includes heat-generating payload equipment, and a heat transport system with a cold plate thermally coupled to the equipment and a capillary-wick evaporator, for evaporating coolant liquid to cool the equipment. The coolant vapor is coupled t... | 10/06/1998 |
| 5773959 | Lithium polymer battery charger methods and apparatus Lithium polymer battery charger methods for charging a plurality of equal charge point lithium polymer battery cells prevent overcharging of any cell, whether the cells are arranged in a series stack or are arranged in parallel. When the cells are connect... | 06/30/1998 |
| 5773108 | Self-coiling composite band A containment structure for radially deployable devices in the form of a self-coiling composite band. The composite band is fabricated as a lay up of epoxy resin-impregnated ply layers of cloth material that are wrapped about a mandrel and cured in a spec... | 06/30/1998 |
| 5774253 | Compact window viewing system A wedge window changes the direction of radiation passing through the window to shorten the window required for unvignetted viewing. An orthogonal reflection pointing mirror reduces the window size that is required for unvignetted viewing through a window... | 06/30/1998 |
| 5748507 | Real-time superresolution signal processing A signal processing system and method capable of real-time implementation for extracting signal parameter information with high accuracy and resolution. Signals (101) are passed through a filter bank (102), downconverted and decimated. The superresolution... | 05/05/1998 |
| 5734504 | Multi-beam illuminator laser The present invention is directed to a multi-beam illuminator laser apparatus and method for providing improved uniformity of laser beam illumination of a distant target or remote object, even in the presence of changing atmospheric conditions. The invent... | 03/31/1998 |
