UHF Fractal Antenna for Space Applications

A Compact UHF fractal antenna for space reentry vehicles and launch vehicles communication systems is proposed. The proposed fractal antenna design based on Peano space filling curves offers a size reduction of 80% compared to the normal rectangular microstrip patch antenna designed using same substrate at the same frequency. The overall dimensions of the realized Peano fractal antenna is 141mm x 141mm x 3mm. The proposed linearly polarized antenna is tuned to operate at 431.5MHz. This paper presents the design details of Peano fractal patch antenna and the performance comparison of different versions of the antenna in terms of S Parameter and gain. Antenna design is carried out in the presences of thermal protection system of the space re-entry vehicle.