Smallsat with Offset Reflector Antenna

Abstract

The employment of smallsats have been increasingly in the last years. Features like low cost, more accessible technologies, and the miniaturization of engineering components are driving the trends to smaller platforms. Following this trend, new spaceborne SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) systems have been adapted to suit the new architectures. This paper presents a new design based on the employment of a mesh deployable offset reflector antenna in association with a small spacecraft. In the analysis are taken into account some considerations as geometry, orbit and attachment to the satellite which reinforce the advantages of using mesh offset reflector antennas.