ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,269,616, issued on April 8, was assigned to MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC Corp. (Tokyo).
"Capturing device and spacecraft" was invented by Daiki Higashiyama (Tokyo), Kazuhide Kodeki (Tokyo), Kazuhiko Fukushima (Tokyo) and Naoki Imamura (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A driving mechanism controller included in a capturing device causes one or more driving mechanisms to spread a tethering member having an elongated shape to the outside of a housing by a target spread length. The driving mechanism controller, when an artificial space object is located in the area surrounded by the tethering member, causes the one or more driving mechanisms to r...