Revolutionary Flat Antenna with Smart Skin on its Way to Space
Normally antennas have a curved reflector dish - which works like the rounded surrounding of a flashlight to focus its beam towards its target - as well as a radio signal feed horn. It is one of the most distinctive elements of a spacecraft – and often among the most bulky. ESA scientists have developed new technology that allows them to design and build antennas with equivalent capabilities, but in two instead of three dimensions. The result is a flat antenna that is much lighter and easier to accommodate on a mission, while doing the same job as a curved antenna. The technology is called 'modulated metasurface': electromagnetic radiation is influenced not by the curvature of the antenna surface but through careful tailoring of the surface itself. Thousands of small metal patches of different sizes and orientations are arranged on top of a dielectric layer across the face of the antenna, through which EM radiation is fed through a single central feeding point.
Transcript
00:00:03 i'm marcus abedini senior anthony engineer in asia's antennas and submillimeter resection working with italian university industries we have developed a new kind of flat antennas and patented as a recipe for their design the new antennas are simpler cheaper and easier to embark in a space mission most antennas have a
00:00:25 radio signal feedhorn and a concave reflector dish which works much like the mirror of a flashlight to focus the beam toward the target the latent meta surface antenna achieves the same effect by careful tailoring of its surface so thousands of small patches of different sizes in the orientation are
00:00:50 arranged across the surface the radio signal comes from the center point spreads over the surface and gets radiated away or an incoming wave will be captured routed toward the center and received it is a bit like the water flow along the skin of dolphins tiny ridges guided flow
00:01:13 reducing their friction and allowing them to swim much faster this allows us to control the shape of the antenna beam and to meet nearly any desired focusing polarization and direction requirements antennas for satellite communication terminal on ground is the first application we are working at
00:01:33 our next step is to pre-qualify the design for use in space we have a deadline for this development isis asteroid impact mission is planned to carry a modulated surface antenna for its 2020 launch to the dynamos by binary asteroids the antenna will serve the mission main i gain communication link
00:01:57 receiving commands from ground and sending unique scientific data from about one million kilometers away you