Design of Space-borne Deployable Mesh Antennas with Joint Clearances

The reflector of many space-borne deployable antennas is usually supported by a deployable arm which consists of more than one joints. To deployed successfully, existence of the clearances in the joints is necessary. However, on the other respect, existence of the clearances will degrade the electromagnetic performance, especially the beam pointing error. Therefore, it is of key importance to study the influence of the joint clearances on the electromagnetic performance and make some efforts to reduce this impact. Using the proposed method by the authors previously, the present paper predicts the EM performances of a 10 m diameter deployable reflector antenna with a deployable arm which has 3 joints with clearances. Based on the which, optimization design is performed to decrease the influence of the joint clearances. Optimal size of the clearance, preinstallation angle of the beams in the arm and the jointed components are obtained. The results show that, after design of the present study, the worst-case beam pointing error is reduced by more than 99%, which is of great significance in the engineering practice.