Patents by Inventor Jude Zils

Jude Zils has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11524459
    Abstract: A spacecraft includes an additive manufacturing (A/M) subsystem and one or both of a thermal control arrangement and a contamination control arrangement. The A/M subsystem includes an A/M tool, feedstock and a workpiece and is configured to additively manufacture the workpiece using material from the feedstock. The thermal control arrangement is operable, in an on-orbit space environment characterized by near vacuum pressure and near zero-g force, to maintain temperature of at least one of the A/M tool, the feedstock, and the workpiece within respective specified ranges. The contamination control arrangement is operable, in the on-orbit space environment, to control outgassing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: Space Systems/Loral, LLC
    Inventors: John Scott Higham, Gordon Wu, Daniel Andrew Fluitt, Elijah Zebadiah Gurnee, Jude Zils
  • Patent number: 11485107
    Abstract: A laminated structure includes a front facesheet, a rear facesheet and a core arrangement disposed there between. The core arrangement includes a plurality of ribs, the ribs disposed so as to form walls defining a reticulated lattice of cells. The ribs have a thickness in a first direction and a height in a second direction approximately orthogonal to the facesheets and to the first direction that extends between the first adhesive joint and the second adhesive joint, the height being at least 100× larger than the thickness. The core arrangement is bonded to the front facesheet by curing a first adhesive joint and bonded to the rear facesheet by curing a second adhesive joint, the first adhesive joint and the second adhesive joint being concurrently cured (co-cured) under pressure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2022
    Assignee: Space Systems/Loral, LLC
    Inventors: Michael Parker, Jude Zils, Russell L. Beck, Douglas William Dietz
  • Patent number: 11014303
    Abstract: A spacecraft includes an additive manufacturing (A/M) subsystem and one or both of a thermal control arrangement and a contamination control arrangement. The A/M subsystem includes an A/M tool, feedstock and a workpiece and is configured to additively manufacture the workpiece using material from the feedstock. The thermal control arrangement is operable, in an on-orbit space environment characterized by near vacuum pressure and near zero-g force, to maintain temperature of at least one of the A/M tool, the feedstock, and the workpiece within respective specified ranges. The contamination control arrangement is operable, in the on-orbit space environment, to control outgassing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: Space Systems/Loral, LLC
    Inventors: John Scott Higham, Gordon Wu, Daniel Andrew Fluitt, Elijah Zebadiah Gurnee, Jude Zils
  • Patent number: 10730643
    Abstract: A spacecraft includes a main body structure and a plurality of deployable modular reflector elements, the spacecraft being reconfigurable from a launch configuration to an on-orbit configuration. In the launch configuration, the modular reflector elements are disposed in a storage system that includes an arrangement for supporting the modular reflector elements with respect to dynamic launch loads. In the on-orbit configuration, in some implementations, an assembly of the plurality of modular reflector elements forms a large-aperture, offset fed, reflector, the reflector being coupled with a boom or yoke with the main body structure by way of a two or three axis positioning mechanism configured to steer the reflector with respect to the main body structure. In some implementations, in the on-orbit configuration, the plurality of modular reflector elements are assembled to form a large aperture reflective surface that is self-supporting.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: Space Systems/Loral, LLC
    Inventors: Jude Zils, Daniel Andrew Fluitt, Carey Graham Hijmans, Douglas William Dietz