High Aspect Ratio Cylindrical Parabolic Antenna for Microsats

The National Academies Decadal Strategy and NASA have identified critical earth observations including Surface Deformation and Change andnbsp; Clouds, Convection and Precipitation.nbsp; These observations are well suited to synthetic aperture radar instruments.nbsp; The missions span operating frequencies from L to Ka Band. nbsp;Precision mesh reflectors are uniquely suited to provide large frequency bandwidth while maintaining small packaging forms with low mass.nbsp; Tendeg proposes to create a cylindrical parabolic reflector that can be used across many missions.nbsp; This will include the ability to operate at frequencies up to 36 GHz while maintaining the ability to operate at frequencies down to L-Band.nbsp; This will allow the proposed reflector to operate with current multi array feeds, or scanning phased array feeds, of different frequencies on the same vehicle.nbsp; This in turn will allow buses equipped with this reflector to carry out several of the Decadal proposed missions which require SAR technologies.nbsp; The proposed baseline design is a 5:1 aspect ratio aperture that will be a 1 x 5m deployed effective aperture.nbsp; The proposed design is scalable to larger apertures and can accommodate a fixed feed with either center fed or offset fed apertures.nbsp; The antenna has high structuralnbsp;stability which resultsnbsp;in high on-orbit resonance frequencies, precision deployment repeatability, low distortions due to on-orbit temperatures and ability to accurately RF test in 1G.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The proposed design would leverage technologies already developed by Tendeg as part of previous SBIR activities.nbsp;