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 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 will fabricate a deployable antenna, demonstrate its stowage and deployment, and verify its RF performance. The Phase I testing data will be extrapolated to the antenna performance for a range of ORS missions. The manufacturing lessons learned will be extrapolated to the flight system production cost and schedule. During the Phase II program, the design and manufacturing tools will be matured and a representative antenna will built as part of a flight ready system ready for demonstration on a 3U cubesat mission. 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.