High UHF Slot Antenna for Nano-Satellites

The armed forces commonly use UHF frequencies for mobile communications including ships at sea. At UHF frequencies, communications is predominately line-of-sight. In many situations, mobile communications is dependent on UHF space assets. The use of nano-satellites is an attractive alternative to large geosynchronous satellites because they reduce costs while increasing flexibility and adaptability. The challenge of using nano-satellites as UHF communications relays is the integration of an inherently large antenna with a tiny satellite. The wavelength of the UHF signal can be up to ten times the size of the nano-satellite. Add the requirement that the antenna has sufficient gain to communicate with relatively small mobile UHF units and the challenge of reducing the antenna size is significantly greater. The Azimuth Team proposes to design, build, and characterize an innovative UHF antenna concept whose size is sufficiently small to be integrated with a nano-satellite without noticeable increasing the atmospheric drag on the low Earth orbiting spacecraft. In spite of its small size, the UHF antenna will deliver the 11 dB of gain required for mobile communications.