Thanks to the advances in the miniaturization and improved power consumption efficiency of electronics, computers, cell phone technologies, etc., today’s spacecrafts and payloads are reducing their size and increasing their performance. However, not all systems can be reduced, as their dimensions are determined by the laws of physics. This study is focused on the design of an L-band reflector antenna for a CubeSat-based Earth observation mission devoted to measure the surface soil moisture. Two configurations of deployable parabolic reflector antennas and meshes are presented from the mechanical point of view. The electromagnetic analyses including the antenna feeder are also presented. It is found that the regular circular mesh performs slightly better than the irregular one, although requires a more careful manufacturing process.

This work was supported in part by the Project “Sensing With Pioneering Opportunistic Techniques-SPOT,” Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación under Grant RTI2018-099008-B-C21 and EU ERDF funds, and in part by UPC-CommSensLab María de Maeztu Unit under Grant MDM-2016-0600.

Peer Reviewed