Electromagnetic Characterizations of Mesh Deployable Ka Band Reflector Antennas for Emerging CubeSats

CubeSats are a miniaturized class of satellites that are launched as secondary payloads, offering the possibility of carrying out advanced space missions at affordable costs. Mechanical constraints and limited power onboard have limited current antenna implementations to low-gain, low data rate, and near-omnidirectional patterns. Integrating high gain aperture antennas with CubeSats can offer innumerable possibilities for advanced space missions. However, packaging large apertures into the small CubeSat form factor presents a formidable challenge to the scientific community. This thesis investigates the potential of integrating a 1m offset mesh deployable reflector antenna system with a 2.5U (10cmx10cmx25cm) CubeSat chassis for Ka band remote sensing or communications. Packaging such a large aperture into the small 2.5U volume necessitates a completely customized reflector design for our application. A detailed study of deployable umbrella mesh reflectors, RF analysis of various reflector antenna configurations and feed design methodologies are included in this work. These particular studies not only demonstrate the feasibility of the next high-gain antenna; they mark a major milestone (a 1m antenna size) for CubeSats, which is among the largest to be utilized for Ka band