Steerable High-Gain Dual-Reflector Antenna at X-Band for Solar Orbiter

This article presents the design, optimization, analysis, and test of a dual-axis steerable X-band dual-reflector antenna for Solar Orbiter. The system is a part of the onboard antenna subsystem of the Solar Orbiter probe, a science mission from the European Space Agency (ESA) whose goal is to study the Sun and its heliosphere. From the engineering point of view, it is remarkably the extremely harsh orbit environmental conditions. The presented high-gain antenna must operate within a thermal range from -200 °C to 580 °C. To withstand such constraints, the design of the dual-reflector system is optimized considering the thermal distortions imposed by the environment, yielding the final design whose radio frequency (RF) performances are marginally impacted during the different orbit conditions and phases of the mission. An exhaustive verification campaign is also performed to test the antenna under nearly orbit environment.