Impact of strut diameter on the European Space Agency Deep Space Antennas efficiency and sidelobes

Large reflector antennas require the presence of struts to support both feeds and sub-reflectors. Such structures affect the antenna behavior. The present paper proposes an investigation between struts of different radius, considering the structure of the European Space Agency Deep Space Antenna 3 (DSA3), in terms of side-lobes and efficiency. The numerical simulations, which employed Physical Optics, are compared with those related to the DSA4, in order to assess the impact of both the smaller radius and of the different shape of the struts on the antenna performances.