IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine - July 2020 - 20
Improving Small Satellite Communications in Deep Space
Figure 7.
MarCO deployable antenna shown mounted on its 6U CubeSat has 29 dBi of gain.
km. The twin MarCO spacecraft each employs a
deployable reflectarray antenna with 29 dBi gain at Xband. The MarCO reflectarray (see Figure 7) is based
on the design concept developed for ISARA. It also
uses spring loaded hinges to fold the panels for stowage in the space outside the spacecraft bus [32], but it
does not include a solar array. Each MarCO antenna
consists of three panels that form a 59.7 x 33.5 cm2
aperture. The panels stow flat against the side of the
spacecraft, using only about 4% of the 6U CubeSat
payload volume, with a mass just under 1 kg. The
antennas on the twin MarCO spacecraft successfully
deployed, and in-flight tests of the communications
system indicate they met requirements. Note that the
MarCO antenna is only the second reflectarray ever
flown in space.
Deployable mesh reflectors are a second type of CubeSat
antenna that has recently been proven in space. The RainCube Earth-orbiter mission [33] employs a 0.5-m Ka-band
deployable parabolic mesh reflector antenna [34] as shown
in Figure 8. The spacecraft, released into Earth orbit from the
International Space Station (ISS) in July 2018, has the objective of monitoring the weather using its Ka-band radar.
Although this antenna is being used for radar, the original
design was developed for Ka-band telecommunications
applications. The antenna, which successfully deployed
shortly after the start of mission operations, provides 42.6
dBi gain, stows in a 1.5U volume during launch and has a
total assembly mass of just under 1.5 kg.
The next generations of CubeSat deployable mesh
reflector antennas are 1-m antennas supporting frequencies up to Ka-band. The L3Harris Technologies High
Compaction Ratio (HCR) 1-m symmetric reflector can
stow in a 2U (10 x 10 x 20 cm3) volume with a mass of 4
kg [35]. A new offset-fed deployable antenna called
KaTENna (see Figure 9) was recently developed on a
NASA Advanced Component Technology program and
manufactured by Tendeg LLC. This antenna has 49.2 dBi
gain at 36 GHz, stows in a 3U (10 x 10 x 30 cm3) volume,
and weighs 2.5 kg [36], [37]. Note that the KaTENna
antenna can be configured as either an offset or symmetric
fed reflector.
Figure 8.
RainCube Ka-band deployable mesh reflector antenna with 42.6 dBi gain.
20
IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE
JULY 2020
IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine - July 2020
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