Deployment Mechanisms for Reflectors, Booms, and Feeds Across JPL Missions and Technology

This paper explores the critical role of deployable mechanisms in enabling spacecraft missions that demand large radio frequency (RF) aperture systems. Our focus centers on deployable antenna elements, specifically reflectors, booms, and feeds, for which JPL held responsibility in the last decade, addressing their impact on past, present, and future missions. The deployable systems are divided by maturity, starting with successful past deployments, upcoming missions nearing launch, projects in the funded phase without fabricated hardware, and pioneering technologies under development. This paper highlights the innovative accomplishments on deployable RF systems at JPL, from CubeSats to flagship missions. A key theme emerges from the study of these deployable systems: a constant decrease in stowed volume available, and a constant increase in frequency at which the antennas must work and antenna size. This increases the mechanical demands on stowing efficiency and deployment accuracy.