US Patent Issued on Nov. 4 for "Maneuvering a spacecraft using an optimized guidance trajectory and model predictive control" (Utah Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,459,675, issued on Nov. 4.

"Maneuvering a spacecraft using an optimized guidance trajectory and model predictive control" was invented by Tyson Smith (Logan, Utah), John Akagi (Logan, Utah) and Greg Droge (Logan, Utah).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "For maneuvering a spacecraft, a method calculates a virtual point that represents a plurality of spacecraft orbiting in a spacecraft formation. The method iteratively calculates a desired trajectory relative to the virtual point for a given spacecraft of the plurality of spacecraft using a relative orbital elements (ROE) state x of the virtual point and the given spacecraft. Model predictive co...