Description
The objective of this activity is to develop an integrated structural antenna concept for high aspect ratio satellites. The antenna concept shall be frequency and size scalable. Critical breadboarding shall be carried out to evaluate the concept for mobile satellite communication systems in Low Earth Orbit. Targeted Improvements: Enabling stackable satellites with efficient launch volume occupation with an improvement of 30% in comparison to existing small satellites. Description: There is a growing demand for small satellites in commercial telecommunication applications. While cheaper access to space through a more competitive launcher landscape enables large constellations, there is still a need to optimally use the available volume in the launch fairing. Today's standard small satellite platforms (e.g. cubic shapes) cannot achieve a high volume occupation rate hence there is great interest in high aspect ratio satellites. Already first systems are being developed and deployed outside of Europe (such as Starlink, DiskSat and PancakeSat), which are addressing this problem and enabling a larger number of satellites to be stacked in existing launchers. However, these solutions still address separately the platform constraints and mission requirements, while a more integrated approach could lead to substantial mass savings and more optimal use of the fairing's available volume. This activity will develop a concept of integrated structural antenna and investigate design options that would result in improved operation while keeping the main benefits of a thin, high aspect ratio satellite. In particular, the radiating elements and their integration in the structural face forming the down-looking satellite side shall be developed, providing a generic concept that may be adaptable to various operating frequencies. A possible standardisation of the concept shall be considered, as well as its integration in a fairing to provide both modularity and optimal volume occupation. A scaled engineering model shall be manufactured and tested in the selected frequency band. The demonstrator shall be representative from both an RF and a mechanical perspective and relevant tests shall be performed.