Search

This paper presents the initial phases of the study of a communication system in Ka band intended for future ESA Deep Space (DS) Science Missions. The paper focuses on the different antenna architectures for the Ka-band system and the initial trade offs between the proposed antenna candidates, addressing the criticalities of the antenna requirements.The study is being currently conducted by Airbus DS Espana (ADSM) with the support of DA Design (Fi) in the frame of an ESA predevelopment project activity to study the TTC active phased array antenna (PAA) subsystem and it is intended to perform antenna studies of the communication system necessary to maintain a complete link between the DS spacecraft and the Earth ground stations.

The European Space Agency (ESA) project is investigating the feasibility of future Earth observation Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) missions with Along Track Interferometry (ATI) and Ground-Moving Target Indication (GMTI) capabilities in Ka-band. In the ESA technology development activity “MASKARA” a compact stowable, high gain reflectarray structure is investigated, which is a key enabling technology for such missions. In this paper, results of the project's preliminary design phase are presented and discussed.

The design of polarization selective reflectarrays for high resolution and wide swath SAR instrument in Ka-band is presented. The antenna system consists of nine dual-offset reflectarray panels, each with the size of $1.5\mathrm{m} \times0.55\mathrm{m}$. The reflectarrays operate in two modes, a high-resolution mode with a directive beam in one polarization, and a low-resolution mode with a broader beam in the orthogonal polarization. Two designs are presented, a single-layer design and a multilayer design. Both designs provide a gain $\gt 46.7$ dBi for the high-resolution mode and a gain $\gt 45.2$ dBi for the low-resolution mode.

The ongoing developments of satellite antenna technology, mainly of multiple-feed-per-beam (MFB) concepts, combined with advanced compound semiconductor and packaging technologies that provide the building blocks for a new generation of K-band satellites, are reported. This paper proposes a next-generation MFB application scenario using the advantages of both new antenna and solid-state power amplifier concepts.