"There is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television, or radio service inside the United States."
T. Craven, FCC Commissioner ; 1961
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 4714339 | Three and five axis laser tracking systems A tracking system for measuring at least the spatial coordinates of a target and possibly the angular orientation of the target. A collimated beam is directed to the target and a mirror attached to the target reflects this beam back to a tracking point. P... | 12/22/1987 |
| 4712915 | Arrangement for holding an instrument in alignment with a moving reflector The invention relates to an arrangement for holding an instrument aligned onto a movable reflector, which may have the form of a cube corner prism. The instrument has a transmitter which transmits a slightly divergent beam of electromagnetic radiation ont... | 12/15/1987 |
| 4701602 | Adaptable modular stabilization system An optical sensor system (10), including a two degree of freedom gyro (32) and a beam expander (38) having a predetermined magnification level, is rigidly secured internally to a housing (20). Also mounted within the housing is a prime sensor beam expande... | 10/20/1987 |
| 4665795 | Gun muzzle reference system A muzzle reference system is provided for correcting errors in aiming signals produced by a fire-control system of an artillery gun having a gun muzzle pivotable about a first axis and movable about a second axis extending perpendicularly of the first axi... | 05/19/1987 |
| 4650325 | Laser tracker designator A laser source projects a main beam through a central hole formed in an optical wedge. A portion of the laser light is refracted through the wedge and forms an optical side lobe. By rotating the wedge the side lobe undergoes a conical scan enhancing the t... | 03/17/1987 |
| 4577962 | Method and equipment for the control of aiming and firing at a real target A firing weapon is associated with a laser radiation source mounted in proximity to the weapon and also with a detector which is sensitive to the laser radiation. The orientation of the radiation is adjusted independently of the aiming of the weapon in or... | 03/25/1986 |
| 4576480 | Optical alignment system An optical alignment system in which an aligning beam of radiation is caused to scan around the periphery of an alignment aperture. Light reflected from the edge of the alignment aperture is collected and a related electrical signal is produced. If the al... | 03/18/1986 |
| 4528525 | Scanning laser for a scanning laser radar In an optical radar system a coherent signal is transmitted at a variable position and the return signal, that is, the reflected portion of the coherent signal is received and coherently detected. The transmitter utilizes a scanning laser having an electr... | 07/09/1985 |
| 4516853 | Laser radar adaptive tracking system A laser radar system employs an acousto-optic modulator to sweep an output beam. Comparison of reflected radiation with output radiation permits adaptive control of steering angle and beam width to track a target with efficient use of power.... | 05/14/1985 |
| 4515471 | Scanning laser radar In an optical radar system a coherent signal is transmitted at a variable position and the return signal, that is, the reflected portion of the coherent signal is received and coherently detected. The transmitter utilizes a scanning laser having an electr... | 05/07/1985 |
| 4515472 | Agile receiver for a scanning laser radar In an optical radar system a coherent signal is transmitted at a variable position and the return signal, that is, the reflected portion of the coherent signal is received and coherently detected. The transmitter utilizes a scanning laser having an electr... | 05/07/1985 |
| 4497065 | Target recognition system enhanced by active signature measurements A passive electro-optical target recognition system which utilizes additional signature measurements of an active nature to enhance the discrimination of desired targets from detected candidate targets in the field of view thereof is disclosed. Candidate ... | 01/29/1985 |
| 4401886 | Electromagnetic beam acquisition and tracking system An electromagnetic (e.g., laser) beam acquisition and tracking system that is particularly useful onboard high-speed aircraft (10) to acquire and track a target (12) supporting a retroreflector (13) is disclosed. The acquisition and tracking system includ... | 08/30/1983 |
| 4385834 | Laser beam boresight system Boresighting of an outgoing first laser beam axis to an imaging sensor reference axis is described by aligning a second laser beam axis, which is in fixed relation to the first laser beam axis, to an electromagnetic source reference beam axis and detectin... | 05/31/1983 |
| 4384198 | Time-shared aperture device A time-shared aperture device using the laser illuminated target to provide a return wavefront which passes through the optical train and beam expander. The distortions in this return wavefront are sampled by a rotating beam chopper which completely block... | 05/17/1983 |
| 4373808 | Laser doppler attitude measurement A system is provided for remote determination of the attitude of a moving hicle. The system utilizes two remotely located transmitting-receiving stations and two retroreflecting single plane roof prisms mounted on the vehicle which may exhibit high angula... | 02/15/1983 |
| 4324491 | Dual mode guidance system An active (laser) and passive guidance system having a common sensor (siln-vidicon) for target acquisition, non-imaging seeker (four quadrant detector integrated with four single detectors, gyro optics, electronics), and aim-point correlator. In the pass... | 04/13/1982 |
| 4311384 | Laser scanning system A scanning laser doppler system in which the change in angle between transmitted and received beams caused by the finite transit time to the target is automatically compensated. The scanning beam is produced as a downward looking Palmer scan pattern by an... | 01/19/1982 |
| 4311385 | Coherent detection lag angle compensated scanning system independent of inhomogeneities of the detector A coherent detection scanning laser system having an optical system that compensates for the angular deviation of the received signal resulting from the scanning process, and having a detection system with output independent of spatially varying sensitivi... | 01/19/1982 |
| 4224507 | System for tracking a moving target with respect to a frame of reference of unvarying orientation and fixed origin relative to earth A system for tracking a moving target from a moving carrier. The tracking system is provided with a device for measuring the position of the target in relation to the carrier and with a servocontrol unit for servo controlling the aiming of the device. The... | 09/23/1980 |
| 4215936 | Shared pointing for offset target of an adaptive phased array A coherent optical adaptive system employs phase conjugation for locking the beam of a phased array of laser transmitter to a target, focusing the beam on the target and compensating for distortion and disturbances both within the system and in the propag... | 08/05/1980 |
| 4209253 | Laser radar tracking system A high precision laser radar tracking system is described. Targets which can be tracked include diffuse passive targets, specular passive targets and optical transponders. The base section of the system is fixed relative to the upper section which can rot... | 06/24/1980 |
| 4173414 | Method and apparatus for correcting the aiming of an optical illuminator on a target The invention relates to the aiming of an optical illuminator on a target. The direction in which is seen the maximum light of the illuminator reflected by the target is detected, the angle formed by this direction and the direction of sight is measured a... | 11/06/1979 |
| 4168908 | Precision pointing and tracking control system A precision pointing and tracking control system having a source for producing an electromagnetic beam, a high efficiency diffraction grating, a retroreflector, sensor and means for adjusting the optical relationship between the above elements and a targe... | 09/25/1979 |
| 4168524 | Airborne surveying apparatus and method A method and apparatus for surveying ground terrain from an airborne vehicle is disclosed. According to the method and apparatus, an inertial measurement unit, a position tracking device, and a terrain altimeter are carried by the airborne vehicle in a kn... | 09/18/1979 |
| 4161652 | System for optically aiming a laser beam on to a target System for optically aiming a laser beam on to a target. The system comprises a mirror which reflects the laser beam towards the target and which is supported by a base by means of a pivot and first and second vibrating control members. This pivot and the... | 07/17/1979 |
| 4155096 | Automatic laser boresighting To boresight the laser of a laser designator system to the null point of an automatic television tracker, by selectively causing the laser beam to be retroreflected to the video sensor of the system, which interfaces with a television tracker. The tracker... | 05/15/1979 |
| 4129775 | Glint capture system for improving lock stability of coat An imaging detector system for improving the lock-on stability of an optical system and in particular a multi-dither coat system. A quadrant non-coherent detector is disposed beneath a variable stop iris for receiving focused light from a target. The quad... | 12/12/1978 |
| 4123651 | Apparatus and method for speckle tracking A laser radar system and method for tracking speckle generated by the interaction of a beam of coherent electromagnetic radiation with a target to enhance the signal to noise ratio of a return signal is disclosed. The radar system is formed with a transce... | 10/31/1978 |
| 4123166 | Optical detector of remote movement including cyclic scanning of target A detector of remote movement in which light from a laser is directed at a target and, on reflection from the target, is mixed with reference light from the laser to produce a Doppler signal denoting the movement of the target. The beam of light from the ... | 10/31/1978 |
| 4047816 | Attitude determination using two transmitter/receiver stations and skewed reflectors A system is provided for remote determination of the attitude of a vehicle. he system utilizes two remotely located transmitting-receiving stations and two retroreflecting single plane roof prisms mounted on a vehicle which may exhibit high angular rates a... | 09/13/1977 |
| 4035084 | Automatic levelling method and apparatus for rotating laser beam transmitter Transmitters generating rotating laser beams are commonly employed for surveying and earth working equipment control purposes. This invention relates to a method and apparatus for automatically maintaining the rotating laser beam in a required plane which... | 07/12/1977 |
| 4025193 | Apparatus suitable for use in orienting aircraft in-flight for refueling or other purposes A modulated light beam is projected from a transmitter aircraft toward a receiver aircraft and reflected back toward the receiver aircraft by a retroreflector mounted on the receiver aircraft. The reflected light beam is received by the transmitter aircra... | 05/24/1977 |
| 4003659 | Single plane corner reflector guidance system A laser attitude detection and guidance system which uses a number of gro base laser transmitter/detector stations and at least two retroreflecting arrays on the missile to track and determine attitude correction signals to be sent for correcting the att... | 01/18/1977 |
| 3954340 | Method of and apparatus for target tracking The invention relates to optical target tracking. A target image, particularly based on reflected laser light, is projected by an optical system onto a light-sensitive detector, control signals for directing purposes being generated depending on the posit... | 05/04/1976 |
| 3946233 | Weapon system for the detection of and use against stationary or moving objects Weapons system for both detection and affecting of stationary or moving objects. A laser beam is generated at a relatively low power level and caused to monitor, as by sweeping, a predetermined zone or space. Said laser beam or a portion thereof is reflec... | 03/23/1976 |