New variant of the deployable ring-shaped space antenna reflector

Abstract

Despite that theoretical, design and experimental studies connected with the creation of large deployable antenna reflectors have already been carried out for quite a long time, this area still remains of lively interest and has good application prospects. An example is the program of the European Space Agency (ESA) on the creation of a qualified variant of a 15 m deployable space offset reflector. It should be said that by the time the ESA adopted a decision on the implementation of this program, a deployable space reflector 7 m in diameter had already been created in Georgia and, in 1999, this space reflector was successfully tested aboard the orbital station "Mir" according to the joint Georgian-Russian program.Georgian Institute for Space Constructions, continues developing new design principles for large space deployable systems (Transformable Space and Ground Structures (in Russian), A Monograph, Georgia-Germany-Liechtenstein, 1995).In the paper we describe the invention of an absolutely new design of a space antenna for symmetric and nonsymmetric radio telescopes, which has been developed by the team of Georgian designers headed by Professor E. Medzmariashvili.The novelty consists in that new engineering and technological effects we obtained by synthesis of ring-shaped and ribumbrella type systems.In particular, the central hinge that connects the main levers of the pantograph is arranged asymmetrically. As a result of this asymmetrical arrangement, during deployment the consoles (folded along the package longitudinal axis and connecting the adjacent sections) move in radial directions from the center to the periphery and, simultaneously, deploy in an umbrella-like manner.

Preliminary Studies on CIMR Antenna Pattern Brightness Temperature Compensation

“…The APC algorithm described in this article was applied to a mesh parabolic reflector with projected diameter D equal to 7.4 m, focal ratio f/D = 1, and clearance of 3.37 m. The mesh is defined by a pseudo-periodic triangular lattice with approximately 1000 nodes arranged in concentric rings [19]- [21].…”

Kinematic and dynamic characteristics' analysis of a scissor multi-rod ring deployable mechanism

“…The truss mechanism has been widely used in satellite antennae due to its high overall stiffness, easy control of shape, and surface accuracy (Okhotkin et al, 2017), for example, the ring truss deployable antenna mechanism (RTDAM) on the US NISAR satellite (Kobayashi et al, 2019;Focardi and Harrell, 2019;Focardi and Vacchione, 2019) and the AstroMesh RTDAM of NGST (Meguro et al, 2000). In addition, there are circular scissor deployable antennas from Russian companies (Cherniavsky et al, 2005;Medzmariashvili et al, 2009) and frame deployable antennas on Japanese satellite ETS-VIII (Meguro et al, 2009).…”