A CASE-STUDY IN THE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS FOR A 5.0M DEPLOYABLE COMPOSITE ANTENNA

The demand for larger space-based structures has given rise to intensi ve research in the field of deployable and erectable systems over the past two decades. The major design drivers for space-based systems are that they are of minimum mass, and that they are dynamically isolated from their supporting spacecraft by ensuring that their first resonan t frequency is above a given threshold level. This paper describes a d eployable antenna concept currently being developed for use in geosync hronous earth orbit. The natural frequency of vibration of the deploya ble antenna is predicted using finite element eigenvalue extraction te chniques and the experimental analysis of a perspex model is used to i dentify the optimum experimental test configuration for the manufactur ed antenna.