Preparation of enabling space technologies and building blocks: Multi-beam uplink antenna demonstrator

Currently, there only seem to  be receive-only L-Band multi-beam antennas available in the space market. But several potential applications could benefit from multi-beam antenna. Including new applications of this technology for mega constellations, Internet of Things products and a user terminal.

A new activity with GSTP and Thales Alenia, France, has developed a different antenna, for synthetic-aperture radar distress signal detection and localisation.  The activity is part of the GSTP Building Blocks framework.

The activity identified all of the potential applications of a multi-beam antenna, for use  in low, medium or high Earth Orbit.

The possible architecture of these  multi-beam antennas and how they might be used in these different applications was then defined. 

The activity studied several antenna architectures, with different performances and across various frequency bands. All the architectures have been streamlined to reduce complexity and associated costs.

Finally, a process of testing and  validating the multi-beam antenna system was completed.

Calibration aspects were covered, and became very critical in the domain of phased array, as it was required to point simultaneously to several positions. Criticalities found with drone testing have also been addressed and work-arounds identified.

GT17-137TIh completed in 2021.