Reconfigurable Small Satellite Antennas

In a contested space environment, communication links can be made more resilient through flexible and reconfigurable antenna designs, including antennas with nulling capability. This capability can also be extended to the telemetry, tracking, and control (TT&C) link which is critical to the entire satellite system. The Antenna Systems Department (ASD) at the Aerospace Corporation has done recent work in developing concepts for an agile multi-band TT&C antenna with nulling capability for standard communication satellites, where the new antenna design has the same form-factor as the heritage design. The proposed project would extend this work toward the area of small satellites, where there will be interesting challenges imposed by even smaller form-factor requirements. In this collaboration, Prof. Jackson's group will be working on the design and simulation of a reconfigurable TT&C antenna for small satellites. The design and simulation work will be done using a full-wave electromagnetic simulation tool, such as FEKO, CST, and Ansys HFSS. Aerospace will consult on the design and can provide additional design and simulation help as needed. Aerospace will fabricate and measure the performance of the antenna with assistance from CSUN.