A surface distortion analysis applied to the hoop/column deployable mesh reflector antenna

Abstract

A practical approach is demonstrated for the deterministic analysis of surface distortions in reflector antennas, based on a first-order approximation to the aperture field phase. Measured pattern results from the 15-m-diameter hoop/column deployable mesh reflector antenna are used to demonstrate the accuracy which can be obtained with this surface distortion analysis. The only practical limitation of the first-order approximation is determined by the slope derivations of the distorted surface from the best-fit paraboloid.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>