Multi-Beam 1.6m Ka-band Deployable Mesh Reflector Antenna concept for INCUS

Abstract

A multi-beam Ka-band deployable mesh reflector designed for the NASA’s Earth Ventures Mission named INCUS (Investigation of Convective Updrafts) is presented. It is a 1.6m diameter mesh reflector offset-fed by an array of five small horns. The 4 off-nadir horns are arranged in two rows in order to achieve the desired cross-track overlap at the 3-dB point of the antenna pattern. This solution takes advantage of the platform motion to achieve the desired scan pattern with a simple switched-horn solution. The optimization of the antenna feed location to achieve the 3dB beamwidth overlap is described and the overall reflector antenna performance is presented.