Design and Analysis of Space-borne Ring Antenna Mechanism for Deployment Smoothness

Space deployable antenna is prone to failure during deployment, resulting in mission failure. Deployment smoothness is the critical factor for the success of antenna deployment. To improve the deployment smoothness of space deployable antenna and increase the deployment success rate, a scissors telescopic vertical rod loop truss deployable antenna mechanism is proposed. The basic composition and deployment process of the mechanism are introduced in detail. The kinematics and dynamics of the mechanism are analyzed. The results show that when the driving force of the same size is given, the deployment angular velocity and angular acceleration of the mechanism are significantly lower than those of Astromesh antenna. Thirdly, it is recognized that the whole deployment process of the antenna has an obvious time history, a smoothness index based on the whole time history is proposed, and the deployment smoothness of the antenna is evaluated. The results show that when the driving force of the same size is given, the acceleration root mean square of each node of the mechanism is half of that of Astromesh antenna. Finally, the prototype is developed and the rationality of the structure and accuracy of the evaluation method is verified by the antenna deployment test. The scissors telescopic vertical rod loop truss deployable antenna has a low fold/deploy ratio and a smooth foldable and deployable process.