Appeal No. 96-1999
Application 08/216,382
It is apparent to us from the underlying disclosure
that appellant achieves center of mass shifting according to
the present invention only when the thruster is firing, draw-
ing propellant preferentially.
Independent claim 1 is drawn to a spacecraft com-
prising, inter alia, a three-axis stabilized body, and con- 3
trol means coupled to an attitude sensing means and to propel-
lant coupling means, for controlling the propellant coupling
means in response to error signals from the attitude
sensing means, only during operation of a first thruster, in a
manner which preferentially feeds propellant from one of first
and second tanks to the first thruster in a manner which tends
to move the actual center of mass relative to an axis of
thrust in a manner which tends to maintain the attitude of the
spacecraft.
3The patent to Hubert (column 1, lines 20 through 28)
describes the differences between spacecraft stabilization by
three-axis stabilization using thrusters and by spin stabili-
zation. These types of stabilization appear to us to be terms
of art. It is noted that appellant’s disclosed spacecraft uses
attitude control thrusters 20 (20a through 20n of Fig. 1).
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