Design and Measurements of a 1m Ka-Band Mesh Deployable Reflector Antenna for CubeSats

CubeSats offer innumerable possibilities for affordable space missions since they can be piggybacked with conventional satellites during launch and can be built from Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) components. The small size, however, precludes the use of high gain antennas which are a necessity for advanced space missions requiring high data rates and/or resolution. This work looks to empower future CubeSats by the development of a 1m Ka-band mesh deployable reflector antenna that stows in a volume of just 3U (10x10x30 cm
³
). We detail the mechanical design, deployment strategy and measured results of our antenna. The fabricated antenna demonstrates a measured efficiency of 60% with a half power beamwidth of 0.60° at 35.75GHz, which satisfies the demands of the Radar In CubeSat (RainCube) project envisioned by NASA.