Circularly Polarized Lunar Regolith Simulant Antenna for Future Lunar Communication

Our work investigates a new circularly polarized antenna using lunar regolith simulant substrates. Utilizing cement, water, and lunar regolith simulant in a particular volume composition, a lunar regolith simulant substrate is fabricated. This research delivers the measurement and construction of a single CP antenna in addition to the fabrication process for a lunar regolith simulant substrate. According on measurement, the substrate referred to as lunar regolith simulant exhibits a dissipation loss (tan δ) of 0.00527 and a relatively low dielectric constant (ε
r
) of 2.08. The circularly polarized antenna under investigation operates at a frequency of 6.175 GHz. The experimental setup utilizes two substrates arranged in a stacked configuration. Each substrate is composed of a lunar regolith simulant and has dimensions of 30 x 50 x 2 mm
³
. The total thickness of two-stacked lunar regolith simulant substrates is 4 mm. A parasitic antenna is present in the top substrate's upper layer. Furthermore, the upper layer of the bottom substrate is placed by a solitary circularly polarized (CP) radiator antenna patch, while the ground plane is attached to its lower layer. The singular antenna features right-handed circular polarization (RHCP). Based on the measured results, the measured impedance bandwidth is achieved for 794 MHz, and the axial ratio bandwidth is obtained for 386 MHz. A maximum gain of 6.3 dBic can be achieved by the proposed antenna as well as, a good VSWR of 1.4 at 6.175 GHz. This work provides evidence that lunar regolith, as represented by lunar regolith simulant, exhibits significant promise as a substrate antenna for the purpose of facilitating forthcoming lunar communications infrastructure.