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Derivation of surface shape for inflatable large aperture antennas
Author(s) -
Welch Bryan W.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
mathematical methods in the applied sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1099-1476
pISSN - 0170-4214
DOI - 10.1002/mma.5791
Subject(s) - inflatable , antenna (radio) , aperture (computer memory) , synthetic aperture radar , antenna aperture , surface (topology) , radiation pattern , directional antenna , mathematics , optics , aerospace engineering , computer science , remote sensing , acoustics , geometry , physics , engineering , geology , telecommunications , mechanical engineering
Large deployable aperture inflatable antennas are an emerging technology that is being investigated for potential use in science and exploration missions. In particular, for missions to Mars and beyond, large deployable aperture antennas can provide the antenna gain required for high data rate communications, where the necessary antenna diameter exceeds the available volume of typical launch vehicle platforms. Previous efforts have found that inflatable large aperture antennas do not follow a parabolic shape, and so the nominal Ruze equation is not applicable due to the macroscopic shape errors that exist in this type of technology. Therefore, geometric evaluations of the surface profile cannot simply correlate root‐mean‐square shape error with a parabolic surface to antenna gain degradation. Consequently, the focus of this work is to derive an accurate mathematical model of an inflatable large aperture antenna so that its performance can be characterized. That derivation activity is described in this paper through the calculus of variations methodology, augmented with experimental test data obtained with a laser radar system to validate the surface profile model predicted.