US 11,939,087 B2
Autonomous compliance controlled generic mooring station for an on-orbit system
Donald Wayne Denham, Redondo Beach, CA (US)
Assigned to THE AEROSPACE CORPORATION, El Segundo, CA (US)
Filed by The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA (US)
Filed on Mar. 14, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/694,579.
Prior Publication US 2023/0286677 A1, Sep. 14, 2023
Int. Cl. B64G 1/64 (2006.01); B64G 1/10 (2006.01); H01F 7/02 (2006.01)
CPC B64G 1/646 (2013.01) [H01F 7/0252 (2013.01); B64G 1/1078 (2013.01)] 13 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An autonomous mooring system, comprising:
a pair of mooring systems connected to each other by way of a pair of mooring interfaces, wherein
the pair of mooring interfaces is configured to switch a state of the pair of mooring systems from a mooring state to a release state and visa-versa,
one of the pair of mooring interfaces comprises an electropermanent magnet (EPM) and the other one of the pair of mooring interfaces comprises a ferromagnetic plate,
the EPM and the ferromagnetic plate are configured to connect the pair of mooring systems together, and
each of the pair of mooring interfaces is attached to two compliance controlled mechanisms configured to react externally applied forces and moments in a manner allowing for variable levels of compliance.