Cost-effective Operationally Response Membrane Antenna (CORMA)

ABSTRACT: ORS requires rapid delivery of low-cost payloads that meet the needs of unplanned and unanticipated spacecraft missions. Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) will provide ORS, the Air Force, and other customers with a low-cost, rapidly-fabricated deployable antenna for use in a wide range of potential RF missions. The PSI team will use a combination of commercially available manufacturing techniques and a design-for-fabrication approach that will provide ORS with a versatile, scalable, deployable, high-gain antenna technology that can meet the needs of missions from 500 MHz to 8 GHz. During the Phase I program, PSI fabricated a deployable, multi-layer membrane antenna, demonstrated its stowage and deployment, and verified its performance in an RF test range. The Phase I testing data shows that the core approach is robust and effective, and that the design tools and rapid manufacturing approaches worked as anticipated. During the Phase II program, the antenna design and manufacturing will be improved, and a deployable structure architecture based on existing hardware will be developed. The combined structure and membrane will be applied to a 6U flight demonstration payload that will enable the technology be utilized for a wide range of low-cost missions. BENEFIT: The PSI approach is to develop an inherently low-cost and thus commercially viable antenna technology. The technology provides substantial benefits in both cost and schedule thus reducing overall program management risk. The early application to high gain cubesat antennas will provide a first market with a low threshold barrier and a track record of accepting novel technologies. Once the technology has been flight-demonstrated, the approach can be applied to larger, more-traditionally sized spacecraft for ORS and the Air Force as well as commercial spacecraft missions.