Did You Know...
...that one person who claimed to be the inventor of the television is Russian emigre Vladimir Zworykin? In 1929 David Sarnoff, founder of RCA, asked Zworykin what it would take to develop TV for commercial use. He said: a year and a half and $100,000. In reality, it took 20 years and $50 million! Before his death in 1982 at the age of 92, Zworykin said of his invention: "The technique is wonderful. It is beyond my expectations. But the programs! I would never let my children even come close to this thing."
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| Application No. | Application Title | Issue Date |
| 20120022726 | Method for Maintaining Pose of Spacecraft Embodiments of invention disclose a system and a method for formation-keeping of a spacecraft in response to a displacement of the spacecraft to a displaced pose with respect to at least one direction of the displacement, wherein the spacecraft is configured to issue a ... | 01/26/2012 |
| 20110168848 | INNOVATIVE OPTIMAL SPACECRAFT SAFING METHODOLOGY A system and method are disclosed for an innovative spacecraft (S/C) safing methodology. The system and method use wheel momentum to perform a rotisserie rotation so that the spacecraft can slew at a fast rate in a controlled fashion in order to keep the spacecraft powe... | 07/14/2011 |
| 20100327108 | SPACECRAFT AFTERBODY DEVICE An afterbody device for a spacecraft fitted with at least one rocket engine at the rear of the craft includes at least one movable cover element designed to take a first position, masking and reducing the vehicle's rear drag, where it prolongs the vehicle's fuselage aro... | 12/30/2010 |
| 20100327107 | BIDIRECTIONAL CONTROL SURFACES FOR USE WITH HIGH SPEED VEHICLES, AND ASSOCIATED SYSTEMS AND METHODS Vehicles with bidirectional control surfaces and associated systems and methods are disclosed. In a particular embodiment, a rocket can include a plurality of bidirectional control surfaces positioned toward an aft portion of the rocket. In this embodiment, the bidirect... | 12/30/2010 |
| 20100243791 | GYROSCOPIC FAILURE DETECTION IN A NAVIGATION DEVICE THROUGH SENSOR CORRELATION A method of determining the integrity of a gyro in a navigation system is provided. The method includes detecting a relatively sudden change in one of a pitch, yaw and roll signal from a respective pitch, yaw and roll gyro and reviewing at least one other of the pitch, ... | 09/30/2010 |
| 20100181430 | Steering Logic for Spacecraft Slew Maneuvers Spacecraft control modules can steer a spacecraft during a slew maneuver. The spacecraft control modules can receive a target attitude for the spacecraft slew maneuver. An angle between a current attitude and the target attitude may be determined. A smooth attitude offs... | 07/22/2010 |
| 20100059631 | 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 using a ... | 03/11/2010 |
| 20100051750 | System and method for space elevator deployment A system and method for the initial deployment of a space elevator using a tether, doubly spooled from each end, an inertial mass, beacon satellite and positional thrusters, whereby tether is de-spooled from geosynchronous Earth orbit altitude, using gravity and centrip... | 03/04/2010 |
| 20100001142 | 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 radiator p... | 01/07/2010 |
| 20090251773 | LOW ORBIT MISSILE-SHAPED SATELLITE FOR ELECTRO-OPTICAL EARTH SURVEILLANCE AND OTHER MISSIONS A low orbit optical imaging satellite has a long thin satellite body housing an optical telescope arrangement. A major part of the telescope arrangement has its optical axis roughly parallel to the direction of elongation and includes a mirror arrangement deployed to di... | 10/08/2009 |
| 20090224105 | Satellites and Satellite Fleet Implementation Methods and Apparatus A method for implementing a satellite fleet includes launching a group of satellites within a launch vehicle. In an embodiment, the satellites are structurally connected together through satellite outer load paths. After separation from the launch vehicle, nodal separat... | 09/10/2009 |
| 20090218449 | ATTITUDE CONTROL DATA CREATING METHOD, AND ATTITUDE CONTROL SYSTEM APPLYING THE METHOD In order to control an attitude of a movable object having a flexible member (50) through an attitude maneuver, first, based on vibration of the flexible member at the time of the attitude maneuver, for example, a sampling function including no frequency componen... | 09/03/2009 |
| 20090057492 | SPACE VEHICLE HAVING A PAYLOAD-CENTRIC CONFIGURATION In one aspect, a space vehicle includes a structure configured to expand from a first configuration to a second configuration and at least two equipment compartments attached to the periphery of the structure. The structure includes at least one of an antenna mesh, a li... | 03/05/2009 |
| 20080315039 | System and methods for space vehicle torque balancing A spacecraft attitude controller balances external torques, including those resulting from gravity gradient and those resulting from other orbital disturbances, to achieve a comparatively stable, neutral attitude or orientation. Torque is balanced by selecting spacecraf... | 12/25/2008 |
| 20080265098 | Configuration and method of use of optimized cooperative space vehicles A spacecraft system that includes a primary space vehicle and a secondary space vehicle, both of which are designed to optimize payload capacity and launch weight of the primary space vehicle. The primary and secondary space vehicles combine to form an on-orbit space ve... | 10/30/2008 |
| 20080237399 | SATELLITES AND SATELLITE FLEET IMPLEMENTATION METHODS AND APPARATUS A method for implementing a satellite fleet includes launching a group of satellites within a launch vehicle. In an embodiment, the satellites are structurally connected together through satellite outer load paths. After separation from the launch vehicle, nodal separat... | 10/02/2008 |
| 20080228332 | ACTIVE CONTROL OF SOFT HYBRID ISOLATION SYSTEMS Apparatus, Systems, and Methods are provided for controlling motion of a spacecraft. One apparatus includes a non-contacting actuator and a passive mechanical system coupled in parallel with one another. A system includes a payload, a bus, and a hybrid actuator includin... | 09/18/2008 |
| 20080128559 | 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 plane... | 06/05/2008 |
| 20080105788 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR NODE-SYNCHRONOUS ECCENTRICITY CONTROL A method for performing east-west station keeping for a satellite in an inclined synchronous orbit is described. The method includes averaging a value of a right ascension of the ascending node for an inclination vector associated with the satellite over a period of the... | 05/08/2008 |
| 20080029652 | APS BASED INTEGRATED SUN SENSOR The disclosure relates to an APS based integrated sun sensor comprising: a diaphragm unit, a detection unit, a processing electronics unit and an interface unit. The diaphragm unit is operatively connected with the detection unit for forming a sunspots image. The detect... | 02/07/2008 |
| 20070285304 | TARGET ORBIT MODIFICATION VIA GAS-BLAST The gas blast from a directed rocket motor transfers an impulse vector to a space target object thereby altering the target's orbit. Preceding the gas blast, a lower level of rocket exhaust may be directed to the target object for profile imaging that may include center... | 12/13/2007 |
| 20070278351 | Star Blanking Method, Device and Assembly Therefor The invention relates to a self-contained device (4) for blanking out the light rays from at least one star (1), which device (4) comprises means (43) for controlling propulsion means (44) which are in turn capable of moving or halting... | 12/06/2007 |
| 20070090229 | 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 yaw a... | 04/26/2007 |
| 20060118677 | 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 nomina... | 06/08/2006 |
| 20060091261 | Integrated momentum wall A vehicle control system is provided that includes a slat having an axis, a plurality of microwheels disposed on the slat, each microwheel having a first stator wafer, a second stator wafer, and a rotor wafer disposed therebetween, the first and second stator wafers con... | 05/04/2006 |
| 20050116111 | SYSTEM FOR COUNTERACTING A DISTURBANCE IN A SPACECRAFT A system for counteracting a disturbance in a spacecraft includes a biasing apparatus that is coupled to the spacecraft and a spacecraft controller within the spacecraft. The disturbance has a known sign, magnitude and time. The biasing apparatus controls the biasing ap... | 06/02/2005 |
| 20050103941 | 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 rotational... | 05/19/2005 |
| 20050029405 | Predicting, bounding and mitigating satellite attitude disturbances arising from infrared earth sensors for satellites in inclined, elliptical orbits Satellite earth sensors (ES) generate scan lines, areas of detected infrared information gathered across the view of the earth by the satellite. The length of these scan lines is utilized by the satellite Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS) to determine the satellite point... | 02/10/2005 |
| 20050001102 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ATTITUDE CONTROL AND STATION KEEPING A system and method for supplying thrust to a structure, such as a satellite or spacecraft, for the purposes of station keeping and attitude control of the structure in low-gravity (orbital) and zero-gravity environments. The system includes devices for emitting energy ... | 01/06/2005 |
