System for compact stowage of segmented dish reflectors
AssigneeHughes Electronics Corporation
InventorsSamir F. Bassily, John Ziavras
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A deployable segmented dish-like reflector includes a main body with one or more additional reflector segments. Each reflector segment is connected to the main body with one or more link members, such that the entire reflector may be stowed into a compact volume and subsequently deployed to its operational configuration. The system provides a mechanism for stowing the at least one segment in an overlapping manner, substantially parallel to the main body, in order to minimize its stowage volume. The linkage arrangement allows the at least one reflector segment to be deployed from the stowed position to a desired final position. Rate control and deployment coordination may be introduced in a variety of ways.
Claims19
A system for stowing and deploying a segmented dish-like structure, comprising:
- a main body having a front surface, a rear surface, and an outer periphery;
- at least one reflector segment having a front surface, a rear surface, and an edge that is alignable with a portion of said outer periphery of said main body to form the dish-like structure when said at least one reflector segment is in a deployed position;
- at least one link member having a first end and a second end, said first end being secured to said rear surface of said main body and said second end being secured to said rear surface of said at least one reflector segment;
- and
- a mechanism for controllably moving said at least one link member from said deployed position to a stowed position wherein in the stowed position said at least one segment is disposed rearwardly of said main body with the front surface of said at least one segment pointing in substantially the same direction as the front surface of the main body and with said at least one link member disposed between said rear surface of said main body and said at least one reflector segment.
A method for communicating a segmented dish-like structure from a deployed position to a stowed position, comprising:
- providing a main body with a concave front surface, a rear surface, and at least one edge;
- providing at least one segment having a concave front surface, a rear surface, and at least one edge;
- providing at least one link member having a first end in communication with said main body and a second end in communication with said at least one segment;
- pivoting said at least one segment about said first end from a position overlapping said main body wherein in the stowed position said concave front surface of said at least one segment points in substantially the same direction as said concave front surface of said main body;
- and
- pivoting said at least one segment about said second end to a position whereby said at least one edge of said at least one segment is in alignment with said at least one edge of said main body.
A segmented dish-like reflector for deployment from a stowed position to a fully operable position, comprising:
- a main body having a front reflector surface, a rear surface, and at least one edge surface;
- at least one reflector segment having a front reflector surface, a rear surface and at least one edge surface alignable with said at least one edge surface of said main body;
- at least one link member pivotable about a first end in communication with said rear surface of said main body and pivotable about a second end in communication with said at least one reflector surface;
- wherein said at least one link member pivots about said first end and said second end to move said at least one reflector segment between a deployed position with said at least one edge surface of said main body aligned with said at least one reflector segment and a stowed position wherein said body and said at least one reflector segment are overlapping and wherein in the stowed position said front reflector surface of said at least one reflector segment points in substantially the same direction as the front reflector surface of said main body.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.