Description
Objective: The objective is to develop, manufacture and test a breadboard of a lightweight, rollable, passive reflect-array or transmit-array deployed antenna. This shall operate at L- or Sband and have an aperture area of at least 5 square metre.Targeted Improvements: Enabling technology for large aperture deployable antennas based on a simple, reliable and robust mechanical deployment scheme, not existing today in ESA member states.Description: Large aperture antennas are enabling for satcom services and in particular for direct to handheld. Solutions exist for geostationary satcom systems, however current European solutions require complex deployment mechanism and are not easily scalable for mass production. Rollable technologies developed for flexible solar arrays have the potential to overcome those limitations and could enable large aperture antenna with significantly reduced complexity, efficient stow volume, lightweight and scalable for mass production.This activity will develop a concept of a rollable deployable passive lightweight reflect array antenna including a simple and robust deployment mechanism as well as an endto-end manufacturing and assemblyprocess. A breadboard of a transmit- or reflect array antenna in L- or S-band (or higher frequency band) with an aperture size of at least 5 square metres will be designed, manufactured and experimentally tested. A deployment test will be carried out and antenna performance in at least 5 beam pointing directions will be evaluated.