Performance Analysis of the Lander's UHF Antenna for the Mars Sample Return Campaign

This paper presents an investigation of the Radio-Frequency (RF) performance of the UHF antenna employed on the Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL) for the planned Mars Sample Return campaign. The antenna would be used for the radio communication with the orbital spacecraft and its operation is impacted by the presence of the lander deck, instruments located in close proximity, solar panels, and the Martian terrain. To evaluate the degradation of antenna radiation pattern, numerical analyses have been carried out in Ansys HFSS using the Finite-Element Method (FEM). The study was validated by repeating the simulation using a hybrid technique that employs the Integral Equation (IE) method.