A Novel High Gain Active Reflect Array Antenna Architecture for Small Spacecraft

The objective of this Phase I SBIR effort is to develop and demonstrate an advanced, deployable, high gain, active reflect array antenna for use in high data rate transmission to, from and among small spacecraft. While the antenna architecture proposed by AOE can be targeted for frequencies from below L-band to Ka-band and higher, AOE has selected X-band for a demonstration array for this proposed effort. Under the Phase I effort, AOE and LoadPath will focus on achieving an efficient deployable reflect array configuration and, within the trade space of reflect array architectures, will explore several approaches and perform the trade analyses in terms of performance, cost, size, weight and power. The results of this investigation will yield a high gain antenna architecture that will support future NASA and commercial small satellite communication operations. During the Phase I effort, the array deployment mechanism will be demonstrated with hardware while a complete beam-scanning reflect array antenna will be demonstrated with hardware during the Phase II effort.