Prospects of Large Deployable Reflector Antennas for A New Generation of Geostationary Doppler Weather Radar Satellites

Abstract

A novel mission concept, namely NEXRAD in Space, has been developed for detailed monitoring of hurricanes, cyclones, and severe storms from a geostationary orbit. This mission concept requires a space deployable 35-m diameter reflector that operates at 35GHz with a surface figure accuracy requirement of 0.21 mm RMS. This reflector is well beyond the current state-of-the-art. To implement this mission concept, several potential technologies associated with large, lightweight, spaceborne reflectors have been investigated by this study. These spaceborne reflector technologies include mesh reflector technology, inflatable membrane reflector technology and Shape Memory Polymer reflector technology.