DEVELOPMENT OF FLIGHT HARDWARE FOR A LARGE, INFLATABLE-DEPLOYABLE ANTENNA EXPERIMENT

Large, space-based antennas are needed for a variety of different appl ications. Since there is no meaningful orbital assembly capability pla nned at this time, any large space structures will have to be self-dep loyable. Current concepts for large, conventional, mechanical, self-de ployable space structures tend to be very expensive and mechanically c omplicated. Current antenna-user requirements are so stringent (with r espect to the need for very low-cost, high-deployment reliability, low weight, and packaged-volume and usable aperture precision) that new a nd innovative approaches to accommodate large space structures are nee ded. Fortunately, a newly developed class of space structures, called inflatable-deployable structures, has great potential for satisfying t hese stringent user requirements. A concept under development at L'Gar de, Inc., for a large, inflatable-deployable antenna represents an exc ellent example of this new type of structure.