Feasibility Study of Deployable Structure for Space Antenna

Abstract

Deep space exploration, interplanetary missions and next generation telecommunication require high bandwidth data transmission for effective and un-interruptive communication. This caters to need of launching of large size antenna systems of the order of 6m and above. In space technology big structures are limited due to launch vehicle size. Therefore deployable structure are used for long time. In this domain feasibility study has been undertaken for deployable antennas of satellite. After the launch vehicle reaches to orbit in the space, the antenna needs to be deployed. It consists of transition from mechanism to structure. After deployment, the geometric position of points of antenna must be within close tolerance limit, which demands lot of precision. The work comprises of exploration of various versions of deployable structures and main focus on astromesh type of deployable antenna. Detail study is carried out for kinematic and dynamic analysis of mechanism used for astromesh antenna. MATLAB code is developed for kinematic and dynamic analysis for visualization. Determination of required velocity for completion of deployment process in given time is find out with help of MATLAB non-linear equation solver. Design for manufacturing (DFM) and design for assembly (DFA) are taken into consideration and parametric design of mechanism is carried out in commercial cad software CREO parametric. Optimization of mechanism for minimizing stowed diameter is carried out with help of MATLAB. Multi-body dynamics (MBD) modeling and simulation of mechanism is carried out using MSC ADAMS. For automatic model preparation MATLAB script is written for generalize model of the mechanism with given number of segments and diameter of the antenna at any intermediate position of the deployment.