PAGE CONTENTS
Objectives
Ka band market has recently significantly evolved : programs like Yahsat, Athena Fidus, Viasat, Wild Blue 3, Ka Sat … show a great step from slow and cautious introduction of Ka Band systems to full confidence in them. Requests for proposal (RFP) and programs have convinced Thales Alenia Space to continue and deepen its reflections at system point of view, initiated thanks to Domino II and Athena/Agora programs, by taking into account recent trends, propose innovations and demonstrate their feasibility.
Hence, this ARTES3-4 project aims to develop an antenna solution keeping the advantages of the “conventional” solutions (antenna RF efficiency, power handling, risks minimization, cost,…) and answering to market needs in Ka band at the same time.
The objective of the study is to conduct new developments to:
- take benefit of narrow frequency band (125 to 500 MHz) to improve feed efficiency
- take benefit of monopolarisation specification to improve feed efficiency versus cross-polarisation performance and save feed mass
- to develop, manufacture and qualify in house a 2.05m reflector for small beams,
- to design a new feed in reverse BSS Ka band
- to analyse the potential solutions for multibeam Ka-band antenna testing with test techniques leading to reduce acquisition times.
Challenges
N/A
Plan
The activities of the project are organised according to classical development phases. The main steps of the development are :
- Requirements consolidation
- Antenna architecture consolidation
- Preliminary design and analysis (RF, mechanical, thermal, functional)
- Detailed design and analysis
- EQM manufacturing
- EQM testing
Current Status
Qualification tests and Final review are successful.
