Session
Pre-Conference Workshop Session VIII: Communications
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
This paper presents the design of a dual-band printed planar antenna for deep space CubeSat communications. The antenna system will be used with a radio for duplex operation in a CubeSat, which can be used for a lunar mission or any deep space mission. While a high-gain CubeSat planar antenna/array is always desired for a deep space mission, high-performance ground stations are also required for robust communication links. For such a mission, the X-band is the appropriate frequency for the downlink communication,which is very challenging in the case of deep space communication compared to the uplink communication. At this frequency, the antenna size can have small enough dimension to form an array to obtain high-gain directional radiations for the successful communication, including telemetry and data download. NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) has the largest and most sensitive 70 meter-diameter antenna that can be considered for this type of mission for reliability. DSN has uplink and downlink frequency of operations in 7.1-GHz and 8.4-GHz bands, respectively, which are separated by approximately 1.3 GHz. A straight forward approach is to use two antennas to cover uplink and downlink frequencies. However, CubeSats have huge space constraints to accommodate science instruments and other subsystems and commonly utilize outside faces for solar cells. Therefore, in this paper, we have proposed a planar directional circularly polarized antenna with a single feed that operates at both uplink and downlink DSN frequencies. Simulated 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth of 165MHz, from 7064MHz to 7229MHz for uplink, and that of 183MHz, from 8325 MHz to 8508 MHz for downlink, are achieved. Also, a wide impedance bandwidth of 23.86% (VSWR < 2) is obtained. From this single probe-fed stacked patch antenna, peak RHCP gain of 9.24dBic can be achieved.
A Dual-Band Circularly Polarized Printed Antenna for Deep Space CubeSat Communication
Utah State University, Logan, UT
This paper presents the design of a dual-band printed planar antenna for deep space CubeSat communications. The antenna system will be used with a radio for duplex operation in a CubeSat, which can be used for a lunar mission or any deep space mission. While a high-gain CubeSat planar antenna/array is always desired for a deep space mission, high-performance ground stations are also required for robust communication links. For such a mission, the X-band is the appropriate frequency for the downlink communication,which is very challenging in the case of deep space communication compared to the uplink communication. At this frequency, the antenna size can have small enough dimension to form an array to obtain high-gain directional radiations for the successful communication, including telemetry and data download. NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) has the largest and most sensitive 70 meter-diameter antenna that can be considered for this type of mission for reliability. DSN has uplink and downlink frequency of operations in 7.1-GHz and 8.4-GHz bands, respectively, which are separated by approximately 1.3 GHz. A straight forward approach is to use two antennas to cover uplink and downlink frequencies. However, CubeSats have huge space constraints to accommodate science instruments and other subsystems and commonly utilize outside faces for solar cells. Therefore, in this paper, we have proposed a planar directional circularly polarized antenna with a single feed that operates at both uplink and downlink DSN frequencies. Simulated 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth of 165MHz, from 7064MHz to 7229MHz for uplink, and that of 183MHz, from 8325 MHz to 8508 MHz for downlink, are achieved. Also, a wide impedance bandwidth of 23.86% (VSWR < 2) is obtained. From this single probe-fed stacked patch antenna, peak RHCP gain of 9.24dBic can be achieved.
