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An aircraft having vertical takeoff and landing capability provided with at least first and second laterally extending paddle wheels rotatable on a central axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft fuselage and between its nose and tail.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8123173 | Attitude and antenna steering system and method for spacecraft A method of providing attitude and antenna steering for a spacecraft having a number of reaction wheels and a number of antennas is disclosed. The method includes determining a beta angle, the beta angle being the angle between a sun vector and an orbit plane of the... | 02/28/2012 |
| 8056863 | Unified attitude control for spacecraft transfer orbit operations A method of controlling attitude of a spacecraft during a transfer orbit operation is provided. The method includes providing a slow spin rate, determining the attitude of the spacecraft using a unified sensor set, and controlling the attitude of the spacecraft usin... | 11/15/2011 |
| 7832688 | Optimized land mobile satellite configuration and steering A spacecraft may include a receive antenna, a transmit antenna having an antenna attitude adjuster, and a spacecraft attitude adjustor. The spacecraft may have a nominal orientation in which a yaw axis of the spacecraft, a roll axis of the spacecraft, and the radiat... | 11/16/2010 |
| 7823836 | Optimal sun safe attitude for satellite ground tracking A method and apparatus for maneuvering a satellite in orbit to alternately optimize the collection of solar energy and to take sensor data of terrestrial objects is disclosed The longitudinal axis of a large payload package is oriented perpendicular to the orbital p... | 11/02/2010 |
| 7665695 | Unified attitude control for spacecraft transfer orbit operations A method of controlling attitude of a spacecraft during a transfer orbit operation is provided. The method includes providing a slow spin rate, determining the attitude of the spacecraft using a unified sensor set, and controlling the attitude of the spacecraft usin... | 02/23/2010 |
| 7624948 | Optimized land mobile satellite configuration and steering method A method for configuring and operating a spacecraft in an orbit that is inclined with respect to Earth's equatorial plane, the spacecraft including at least a solar array, a receive antenna, a transmit antenna, and radiator panels. The method includes the step of no... | 12/01/2009 |
| 7510148 | Dynamic yaw steering method for spacecrafts A spacecraft with a yaw steering system performing yaw steering. The yaw steering includes steering the spacecraft to have a yaw angle (ψ) for all sun elevation angles (β) in accordance with a yaw steering guidance law that provides a yaw steering motion about a y... | 03/31/2009 |
| 7464898 | Precision thrust/sun tracking attitude control system for gimbaled thruster A system for providing precision thrust and sun tracking attitude control is provided. The system determines a proximity region and alternately engages either an ideal operational mode or a predictive operational mode based on whether a thrust trajectory vector is i... | 12/16/2008 |
| 7428098 | Structureless space telescope A structureless space telescope is disclosed. The structureless primary mirror includes a plurality of mirror elements for focusing and reflecting electromagnetic radiation, and the telescope further includes at least one secondary mirror and possibly a tertiary mir... | 09/23/2008 |
| 7413147 | System and method for propellantless photon tether formation flight The invention is a system and method for propellantless, ultrahigh precision satellite formation flying based on ultrahigh precision intracavity laser thrusters and tethers with an intersatellite distance accuracy of nanometers at maximum estimated distances of tens... | 08/19/2008 |
| 7410130 | Star-tracker-based attitude determination for spinning spacecraft A method of determining the attitude of a spinning spacecraft is provided. The method includes stabilizing the spacecraft, initializing the attitude of the spacecraft using star tracker data, and estimating the attitude of the spacecraft. ... | 08/12/2008 |
| 7410131 | Pulsed detonation engines for reaction control systems Pulsed detonation engines (PDEs) are adapted for use in reaction control systems (RCS), such as thrusters for orbital correction and control (e.g., for earth-orbiting satellites), divert thrust generation and control for space-based interceptor devices, and for miss... | 08/12/2008 |
| 7407137 | Dual voltage integrated power and attitude control system and method An integrated power and attitude control system and method for a vehicle efficiently supplies electrical power to both low voltage and high voltage loads, and does not rely on relatively heavy batteries to supply power during the vehicle initialization process. The ... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7376496 | Spacecraft magnetic momentum control system Momentum control is maintained in a geosynchronous orbiting spacecraft that uses a plurality of reaction wheel assemblies and a plurality of magnetic torquers to control the spacecraft momentum, each orbit of the spacecraft being comprised of a set of time steps, by... | 05/20/2008 |
| 7370834 | Apparatus and methods for in-space satellite operations Apparatus and methods for performing satellite proximity operations such as inspection, recovery and life extension of a target satellite through operation of a “Satellite Inspection Recovery and Extension” (“SIRE”) spacecraft which can be operated in the fo... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7367529 | Momentum tube for distributed actuation An spacecraft control system is provided that includes a tube and a plurality of microwheels. The plurality of microwheels is disposed within the tube. Each microwheel has a first stator wafer, a second stator wafer, and a rotor wafer disposed therebetween. The firs... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7357356 | Attitude and antenna steering system for geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) spacecraft A system for providing attitude and antenna steering for a spacecraft is disclosed. The spacecraft has a number of reaction wheels and a number of antennas. The system includes control logic configured to: determine a beta angle, the beta angle being the angle betwe... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7343228 | Transient cancellation technique for spacecraft solar wing stepping A method and apparatus for controlling a plurality of solar panels of a spacecraft is described. The method comprises the steps of providing a first step command to a first solar panel, and providing a second step command to a second solar panel at a time of a trans... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7315781 | System and method for determining orientation based on solar positioning Determination of the orientation of a unit is based on solar positioning. An actual measurement of the position of the sun is taken and compared to a theoretical determination of the position of the sun. By comparing the actual and theoretical positions, the orienta... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7310578 | Fast access, low memory, pair catalog A system (18) includes: a) A vehicle (12) includes an attitude or angular velocity control system (38), a plurality of star trackers or star sensors (22) each having a field of view (28); b) a memory (30) having a star catal... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7302317 | System and method to enhance attitude estimation for transfer orbit maneuver A system and method to enhance attitude estimation for transfer orbit maneuvers of a spinning satellite includes a transfer orbit earth sensor that can receive and convert an infrared radiance to an analog signal. The analog signal is provided to a hardware chord pr... | 11/27/2007 |
| 7290737 | Nonsurvivable momentum exchange system A demiseable momentum exchange system includes a base and a flywheel rotatably supported on the base. The flywheel includes a web portion defining a plurality of web openings and a rim portion. The momentum exchange system further includes a motor for driving the fl... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7278611 | Pulsed detonation engines for reaction control systems Pulsed detonation engines (PDEs) are adapted for use in reaction control systems (RCS), such as thrusters for orbital correction and control (e.g., for earth-orbiting satellites), divert thrust generation and control for space-based interceptor devices, and for miss... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7280917 | Systems and methods for controlling a landing position of sensors deployed from an air vehicle A sensing device is described that is configured to be launched from an air vehicle for deployment on the ground. The sensing device includes at least one sensor, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), at least one flight control surface, a flight control unit configur... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7258306 | Thermal deformation determination for payload pointing using space-based beacon A system and associated method for compensating for thermal deformation of a spaced-based structure having a spacecraft payload. The system including a beacon source coupled to a first spacecraft for transmitting a first signal and a beacon sensor coupled to a secon... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7260456 | Pixel-frequency slews and filters for star data measurements A method and apparatus for reducing centroiding error of a star sensor having a plurality of pixels is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of computing a star sensor angular slew rate of ω pixels per star sensor integration period τ, collecting star sensor d... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7246776 | Method and system for CMG array singularity avoidance The present method provides a method for avoiding singularities in the movement of CMGs in an array of CMGs in a spacecraft. In a first step, a torque command representing a desired torque to produce an attitude adjustment for the spacecraft is received. Next, a ran... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7246775 | System and method of substantially autonomous geosynchronous time-optimal orbit transfer Method of and system for on-board substantially autonomous control for transferring a spacecraft from an initial orbit to a final geosynchronous orbit, by a trajectory that minimizes remaining transfer time and orbit transfer fuel. The spacecraft determines its orbi... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7219860 | Spacecraft including control vanes having variable absorptive, reflective and emissive characteristics A spacecraft including control vanes for controlling the pointing direction of the spacecraft by providing a variable absorptive, reflective, emissive and/or transmissive properties. The control vanes provide a torque on the spacecraft to maintain the spacecraft poi... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7219014 | Method and apparatus for real-time star exclusion from a database A vehicle (12) including a control system (18) is used for controlling vehicle attitude or angular velocity (38). The processor (24) is coupled to a star sensor or tracker (22) and a memory (30) that may include a star catal... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7216036 | Integrated inertial stellar attitude sensor An integrated inertial stellar attitude sensor for an aerospace vehicle includes a star camera system, a gyroscope system, a controller system for synchronously integrating an output of said star camera system and an output of said gyroscope system into a stream of ... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7201308 | Methods for identifying and registering constellations The subject invention provides a system for identifying images in the nighttime sky for the purpose of, for example, honoring and/or memorializing people, places, and events. In accordance with the subject invention, the images are defined, at least in part, by star... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7185858 | Spacecraft gyro calibration system A method of calibrating a gyro (42) of a spacecraft (14) may include determining a yaw attitude residual of the spacecraft. Roll gyro bias residual is determined in response to the yaw attitude residual. The gyro (42) is calibrated in response t... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7185848 | Mass transfer system for stabilizing an airship and other vehicles subject to pitch and roll moments The invention relates to a mechanism to control the pitch and/or roll and/or center of gravity of a vehicle. The first embodiment is a track-based mass transfer system in which pathways are positioned along or radially terminate at a central horizontal plane of the ... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7185856 | Method for controlling the attitude of an satellites in elliptic orbits using solar radiation pressure The present invention provides a method for the attitude control of satellites in elliptic orbits or satellites initially placed in circular orbits perturbed to elliptic orbits due to environmental disturbances. The method relies on the application of solar radiatio... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7185857 | Thrust vector actuation control system and method A thrust vector actuation control system and method is configured to allow self-testing of the entire actuation system and/or its individual system components. The control system also provides real-time, continuous monitoring of actuation system status, and allows s... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7171290 | Method and device for controlling satellite attitude and steering using a gyrodyne cluster In order to control the attitude of a satellite having at least four gyroscopic actuators with respective spinners mounted on gimbals steerable about axes parallel to one or the other of only two different directions that are fixed relative to the satellite, the att... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7149610 | Momentum estimator for on-station momentum control A method and apparatus for estimating spacecraft momentum is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of generating a plurality of spacecraft momentum measurements, fitting the plurality of spacecraft momentum measurements to a parametric model of a spacecraft mome... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7143982 | Dynamic yaw steering method for spacecrafts A method for yaw steering a spacecraft including performing yaw steering of the spacecraft to have a yaw angle (ψ) for all sun elevation angles (β). The method further including smoothing a yaw steering motion for orbital position parameters (η) where high rotati... | 12/05/2006 |
| 7142981 | Laser range finder closed-loop pointing technology of relative navigation, attitude determination, pointing and tracking for spacecraft rendezvous A closed-loop LRF pointing technology to measure the range of a target satellite from a chaser satellite for rendezvous is provided that includes: LOS angle measurements of the target, a relative navigation Kalman filter, attitude determination of the visible sensor... | 11/28/2006 |
