US 12,120,466 B1
Systems and methods for generating a plurality of celestial images utilizing a plurality of satellites
Stewart Bain, Montreal (CA); Narendra Gollu, Montreal (CA); Peter Klimas, Montreal (CA); Jean-Claude Leclerc, Montreal (CA); Daniel O'Connell, Montreal (CA); Frederic Pelletier, Montreal (CA); and Naron Phou, Montreal (CA)
Assigned to NORTHSTAR EARTH & SPACE INC., Montreal (CA)
Filed by NorthStar Earth & Space Inc., Montreal (CA)
Filed on May 23, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/672,463.
Application 18/672,463 is a continuation of application No. 18/519,991, filed on Nov. 27, 2023, granted, now 12,028,654.
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04N 7/18 (2006.01); B64G 1/10 (2006.01); G06T 7/80 (2017.01); H04N 23/71 (2023.01); H04N 23/72 (2023.01); H04N 23/73 (2023.01); H04N 23/75 (2023.01); H04N 23/90 (2023.01)
CPC H04N 7/181 (2013.01) [B64G 1/1028 (2023.08); B64G 1/1085 (2013.01); G06T 7/80 (2017.01); H04N 23/71 (2023.01); H04N 23/72 (2023.01); H04N 23/73 (2023.01); H04N 23/75 (2023.01); H04N 23/90 (2023.01); G06T 2207/10032 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system, comprising:
a plurality of imaging satellites in orbit around a celestial body configured to acquire a plurality of satellite-specific images for a portion of a sky;
wherein each imaging satellite from the plurality of imaging satellites moves in a predefined orbit around the celestial body;
wherein each imaging satellite from the plurality of imaging satellites comprises:
at least one satellite processor;
at least one imaging device comprising:
at least one imaging optical arrangement and
a plurality of sensors;
wherein the at least one imaging optical arrangement is configured to have a field of view (FOV) to capture at least one satellite-specific image of the sky;
wherein the at least one satellite-specific image comprises at least one celestial image feature that is representative of at least one resident space object (RSO) in the portion of the sky;
wherein the plurality of sensors is configured to define a pixel array of a plurality of pixels to detect light through the at least one imaging optical arrangement and to capture the at least one satellite-specific image within the FOV;
wherein the at least one imaging optical arrangement is defocused to increase a positional detection accuracy of the at least one celestial image feature in a volume of the portion of the sky, by spreading an area of each of the at least one celestial image feature over a predefined number of pixels in the pixel array;
wherein the at least one satellite processor is configured to iteratively acquire from the pixel array at a predefined image acquisition rate, satellite-specific image data of the at least one satellite-specific image to form a satellite-specific subset of the plurality of satellite-specific images; and
wherein the plurality of satellite-specific images comprising image data to generate at least 1,000 celestial image features corresponding to at least 1000 RSO in the portion of the sky.