Spherical Occulter Coronagraph Cubesat

Davila, Joseph M [Inventor]Rabin, Douglas M [Inventor]Reginald, Nelson [Inventor]Gong, Qian [Inventor]Shah, Neerav [Inventor]Chamberlin, Phillip C [Inventor]

关键词: CORONAGRAPHS;    SOLAR WIND;    HELIOSPHERE;    CORONAL MASS EJECTION;    OCCULTATION;    SATELLITE-BORNE INSTRUMENTS;    CUBESATS;    SOLAR ROTATION;    PHOTODIODES;    FORMATION FLYING;    PATENTS;    NAVIGATION;    SPATIAL RESOLUTION;   

RP-ID  :  US-Patent-9,921,099, US-Patent-Appl-SN-15/254,323

美国|英语

来源: NASA Technical Reports Server

【 摘 要 】

The present invention relates to a space-based instrument which provides continuous coronal electron temperature and velocity images, for a predetermined period of time, thereby improving the understanding of coronal evolution and how the solar wind and Coronal Mass Ejection transients evolve from the low solar atmosphere through the heliosphere for an entire solar rotation. Specifically, the present invention relates to using a 6U spherical occulter coronagraph CubeSat, and a relative navigational system (RNS) that controls the position of the spacecraft relative to the occulting sphere. The present invention innovatively deploys a free-flying spherical occulter, and after deployment, the actively controlled CubeSat will provide an inertial formation flying with the spherical occulter and Sun.