Three axis pulsed plasma thruster with angled cathode and...

Power plants – Reaction motor – Electric – nuclear – or radiated energy fluid heating means

Reexamination Certificate

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C060S230000, C244S169000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06173565

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to pulsed plasma thrusters for spontaneously adjusting the attitude or altitude of a spacecraft. More particularly, this invention relates to a single controller that controls the magnitude and direction of thrust in a thruster set.
2. Description of the Art
Present spacecraft attitude and altitude control systems use a combination of rotating wheels with either thrusters or magnetic torque rods to compensate for changes in wheel speed when the spacecraft attitude is adjusted. The wheels are used to absorb angular momentum or to generate rotation of the spacecraft in response to disturbance torque imparted to the spacecraft. Wheels have been used because a system utilizing only thrusters was considered to be limited by the amount of propellant that may be carried on board.
Thrusters have not been used to their fullest potential because even a very small control thrust generated by typical thrusters is too large and such a thrust caused the spacecraft to be overwhelmed. This required compensation measures to correct the motion of the spacecraft. This problem in spacecraft control is due to the fact that many designs provide thrust in two directions or alternatively, cant the electrode to provide thrust at an angle. These designs are not desirable since thrust is provided in two components and thus, requires firing a second thruster to compensate for any undesired torque or translations produced as a result of the components of the first thrust.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,706 (Garg et al.) discloses a spacecraft attitude control system using coupled thrusters. The thrusters provide cross coupling torque so that as one thruster is fired; a second thruster is fired thereby providing a balancing force.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,760 (Dailey et al.) discloses a multi-megawatt pulsed inductive thruster. A gas is discharged against an inductor. Each thruster has an associated capacitor to discharge by a trigger generator after a puff of propellant reaches an inductor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,623 (Smith) discloses singly fueled multiple thrusters simultaneously energized by a common power supply. This technique allows a single power supply for multiple thrusters but does not switch from one thruster to a second thruster.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,439,191 (Nichols et al.) discloses a railgun thruster, which provides attitude control via three perpendicular axes. This patent discloses that each thruster has an associated power source.
Thus, there is a need for an improved thruster that provides a single control unit and power source for a plurality of thrusters such that the proper magnitude of thrust is provided to maintain the desired direction of the spacecraft. This type of thruster would eliminate the need for additional thrusters to be fired.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a spacecraft control system that adjusts the attitude and/or altitude of a spacecraft such that the orbit of the spacecraft is not disturbed.
It is also an object of the invention that a single controller controls sets of thrusters of a spacecraft.
A third object of the invention is the placement of thruster sets about a spacecraft to provide control in all three orthogonal directions.
It is a feature of this invention that an attitude control system includes sets of three axial pulsed plasma thrusters, coupled to a single controller that selectively provides thrust along a desired axis. A low inductance stripline couples the controller to a set of discharge electrodes on each axial thruster.


REFERENCES:
patent: 3447322 (1969-06-01), Mastrup
patent: 3555823 (1971-01-01), Guman
patent: 3636709 (1972-01-01), La Rocca
patent: 4589398 (1986-05-01), Pate et al.
patent: 4733530 (1988-03-01), Beattie et al.
patent: 4821509 (1989-04-01), Burton et al.
patent: 4848706 (1989-07-01), Garg et al.
patent: 4967637 (1990-11-01), Loffler et al.
patent: 5207760 (1993-05-01), Dailey et al.
patent: 5335179 (1994-08-01), Boka et al.
patent: 5339623 (1994-08-01), Smith
patent: 5352861 (1994-10-01), Steigerwald et al.
patent: 5359180 (1994-10-01), Park et al.
patent: 5395076 (1995-03-01), Lichtin et al.
patent: 5425231 (1995-06-01), Burton
patent: 5439191 (1995-08-01), Nichols et al.
patent: 5806804 (1998-09-01), Goodzeit et al.
patent: 5924278 (1999-07-01), Burton et al.
patent: 2 262 777 (1993-06-01), None

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