A Deployable High-Gain Antenna Bound for Mars: Developing a new folded-panel reflectarray for the first CubeSat mission to Mars

TLDR

The article develops a deployable high‑gain antenna for the Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSat mission. It is a folded‑panel reflectarray that fits on a 6U CubeSat bus and supports 8.425‑GHz Mars‑to‑Earth communications. The FPR achieves 29.2 dBic RHCP gain while occupying only ~4 % of payload volume and weighing under 1 kg.

Abstract

This article describes the development of a deployable high-gain antenna (HGA) for the proposed Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSat mission to Mars. The antenna is a new folded-panel reflectarray (FPR) designed to fit on a 6U (10 ? 20 ? 34 cm³) CubeSat bus and support 8.425-GHz Mars-to-Earth telecommunications. The FPR provides a gain of 29.2 dBic with right-hand circular polarization (RHCP). Small stowage volume is a key advantage of the FPR design, as it only consumes ~4% of the usable spacecraft payload volume with a mass of less than 1 kg.