Micro-Gravity Tests for a Large Deployable Antenna Reflector using Airbus A.300

Abstract

In order to conduct the advanced mobile satellite communication/broadcasting experiments, the ETS-VIII will be launched in 2002. In these experiments, the 13 m aperture cable-mesh/truss anten­na reflectors are employed for transmission and receiving antennas. To construct such an antenna, we have developed modular mesh deployment antenna. Fourteen 4.8 m modules would construct a 19.2 m X 16.7 m (13 m aperture) antenna reflector. Deployment tests and surface measurements for one of the 14 modules were performed using Airbus A300. The antenna reflector module successfully deployed and the analytical model was precisely correlated to resultant deployment characteristics. Surface shape in micro-gravity environment was also measured and the accuracy of a shape forming process on ground was evaluated.