CubeSats

High-gain antenna concept for small CubeSats. This artistic rendition (which does not illustrate the deployment mechanism) illustrates the challenge to obtain high-gain antenna performance for compact volumes. This is an offset, parabolic reflector antenna system that we hope can be used in future CubeSat missions and applications.

High-gain antenna concept for small CubeSats. This artistic rendition illustrates the challenge to obtain high-gain antenna performance for compact volumes.

Space exploration has long been limited to the rich and famous, i.e. big organizations with substantial government funding. Possibly the biggest impediment for small organizations (e.g. research labs, start-ups) is the cost to send objects into space. Materials and fuel are expensive, not to mention the serious engineering it takes to design the rockets and spacecraft. A recent movement within the satellite community has made significant strides towards making space more accessible to the little guy by developing the CubeSat concept. The basic idea is to make a very small satellite–anywhere from the size of your phone to the size of a moving box–which packages all important components necessary for operation. This was made possible by the shrinking size of electronics and the development of tiny MEMS sensor and actuator technologies. The small CubeSat size allows them to be launched as secondary payloads, which significantly lowers cost for deployment. With a CubeSat satellite design standard now in place, creating commercial-off-the-shelf components for CubeSats becomes a viable marketplace for new companies. Using off-the-shelf components also lowers the costs for CubeSat developers. With such appealing features, CubeSats have now attracted many industry and research ventures, but many big challenges still lie ahead for CubeSats.

My recent research has focused on developing high-gain antenna designs for CubeSats. In general, high-gain antennas come with a large physical aperture size, which might seem counterproductive with the CubeSat vision. Attempting to stow a large antenna within the small CubeSat volume makes this a demanding design problem. Despite this difficulty, high-gain antennas would be extremely advantageous for CubeSats for remote sensing and communications applications.  High-gain can provide both stronger signals and smaller beamwidths, enabling fine resolution measurements in space. Illustrated in the figure to the right is one possibility for a high-gain antenna: a deployable offset parabolic reflector system. I am currently collaborating with JPL, Prof. Rahmat-Samii, and other UCLA students to build a large deployable reflector antenna (with a size near 1 meter). We are also working with several industrial partners to develop the mechanical deployment operation that would enable compact stowage while still maintaining good RF performance.

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