Electrostatically Actuated X-Band Mesh Reflector with Bend-Formed Support Structure

What is it about?

The gain of large reflector antennas, useful for communication and climate monitoring, increases with diameter, but is fundamentally limited by the decrease in surface precision with increasing size and the ability to deploy structures in space. We demonstrate for the first time that a candidate in-space manufacturing technique can be combined with electrostatic actuation to actively shape the surface of a mesh reflector antenna.

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