A Phased Array Antenna for Deep Space Communications

This paper describes a phased array antenna that has been studied for use as the next generation deep space network (DSN) for NASA. The DSN currently consists of large reflector antennas located approximately equidistant around the earth and provides communications and navigation services to the NASA science missions to the solar system planets. These individual antennas range in size from 34-m to 70-m. In the future, there have been proposals to replace these antennas with a phased array, each element of which would consist of smaller reflector antennas than currently used. The total aperture could be increased as required by future missions, with total future aperture up to or more than 10 times that of the current DSN total aperture. One possible architecture for this phased array antenna is described. A breadboard phased array was constructed to demonstrate this concept. The performance of the individual antenna elements and their corresponding subsystems, and the performance of the phased array signal combiner developed for this breadboard phased array is described.