High Power mm-Wave Transmitter System for Radar or TelecommunicationsFuture NASA deep space missions able to provide tens of kilo-watts of spacecraft DC power, make it feasible to employ high power RF telecommunications systems. Traditional flight systems (e.g., Cassini), constrained by limited DC power, used a single high-gain 4m Cassegrain reflector fed by a single lower power (20W) transmitter. Increased available DC power means that high power (1000 W) transmitters can be used. Rather than continue building traditional single-transmitter systems it now becomes feasible to engineer and build multi-element active arrays that can illuminate a dish. Illuminating a 2m dish with a spherical wavefront from an offset 1kW active array can provide sufficient ERP (Effective Radiated Power) when compared to a larger Cassegrain dish. Such a system has the advantage of lower mass, lower volume, improved reliability, less stringent pointing requirements, lower cost and risk. We propose to design and build a prototype Ka-band transmit antenna with an active sub-array using 125W TWTAs. The system could be applied to a telecommunications downlink or radar transmitter used for missions such as JIMO.
Document ID
20030066097
Acquisition Source
Headquarters
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Stride, S. L. (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
McMaster, R. L. (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Pogorzelski, R. J. (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2003
Publication Information
Publication: Forum on Concepts and Approaches for Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter
IDRelationTitle20030066012Collected WorksForum on Concepts and Approaches for Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter20030066012Collected WorksForum on Concepts and Approaches for Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter