Earth based spacecraft orbit and attitude control using a look-ahead thruster selection logic and magnetic torquers
CA 2199436 C · Owner: Space Systems/Loral Inc. · Inventors: Gamble, Donald W.; Takahashi, Marc; Mclaren, Mark
Overview
Its claims, description and drawings are in the Canadian Patents Database.
Open the CIPO recordAbstract From the Canadian patent
A spacecraft ground loop controller (GLC) located on the, Earth, interfaces with a satellite ground station receiving spacecraft telemetry from the downlink baseband equipment and automatically sending spacecraft commands through the command uplink baseband equipment to control the attitude of an orbiting spacecraft and achieve partial orbit control using commanded thruster firings and magnetic torquer polarity and magnitude. A cooperative approach of using all available thrusters, of both the primary and redundant strings, provides greater fuel savings.
Read the whole patent
Listed from its CIPO record in Patent Yard's archive of Canadian patents past their term. Its claims, description and drawings are in the CIPO record and on Google Patents, and the Claude kit works from them.
Why it's free to use
- Filed March 7, 1997 and granted May 13, 2003. A Canadian patent filed from October 1, 1989 lasts 20 years from filing, so its term ended March 7, 2017.
- A certificate of supplementary protection adds at most two years for a drug, so even that would have ended by March 7, 2019.
- We check Canadian rights only. A patent in its family in another country could still be in force: check its family on Google Patents.
Timeline
Timeline From CIPO dates
Sources & verification
Official CIPO records
Everything on this page comes from the CIPO record linked above. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.