Highly Disruptive and Compact Antenna Systems for Small Satellites with Application to Surveillance, Environmental and Crop-Growth Analysis, Enabling European Union Dominance in the Space Industry

Project Information

CSA-EU

Grant agreement ID: 709372

DOI

10.3030/709372

Project terminated on 12 July 2019

EC signature date 21 March 2016

Start date 1 January 2017

End date 28 February 2020

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 195 454,80

EU contribution

€ 195 454,80

Coordinated by

HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CSA-EU (Highly Disruptive and Compact Antenna Systems for Small Satellites with Application to Surveillance, Environmental and Crop-Growth Analysis, Enabling European Union Dominance in the Space Industry)

Reporting period: 2017-01-01 to 2018-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The main technical scope of CSA-EU was to develop innovative antenna designs and solutions which can contribute to the advancement of the state-of-the-art for microsatellite antennas or Cubesats. For example, deployable antennas have classically been implemented in the design of microsatellites which are typically wrapped around the satellite prior to launch and held in place with mechanical/electrical systems and then released and positioned away from the satellite structure post launch. These systems can increase satellite cost, development time, and can be prone to failure and normally redundancy or backup systems are incorporated into the space craft bus. The completed CSA-EU research advanced these types of deployable microsatellite antennas into a more planar, simple, and low-cost PCB form. This came about by continued collaborations between PocketQube Shop (Alba Orbital) in Glasgow, Scotland, throughout the project by the individual fellow.

As a result of these interactions, for example, increased communications and observations of airplanes by a constellation of Cubesats by Alab Orbital was put into practice. These interactions also allowed for the host institution; i.e. HWU to work with Alab Orbital which allowed for new antennas to be placed on solar panels for space-ready demonstration. This can increase the efficiency of the solar panel bus in that they represent a dual-function (antenna for communications and solar power energy harvesting) to improve the durability of the satellite and its lifespan. The work also allowed for the design of new millimeter-wave antenna system which used guided-wave concepts for beam steering and has applications to communications between satellites. These activities are important in that improved data links can be achieved between satellites to improve earth observation and communications and improve the accuracy and knowledge location of airplanes when traveling across the Atlantic ocean for example.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

There are two main work packages (WPs) which formed the project and provide the framework for CSA-EU.

The work of WP1 led to the demonstration of low cost prototypes for the above described antenna system using PCB technologies for microsatellites and other small satellites such as picosats. Basically, a number of prototype designs were implemented due to the different satellite platforms designed for; i.e. cubesat platform (10 cm by 10 cm) and a nanosat platform (5 cm by 5 cm). Antenna integration/implementation with a solar panel was also demonstrated by the researcher. Some of these designs works were published in a special session at a conference and a special session in a peer-reviewed journal paper for small satellite antennas. For example:

- S.K. Podilchak, et al., "Solar-Panel Integrated Circularly Polarized Meshed Patch for Cubesats and Other Small Satellites," in IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 96560-96566, 2019.
- S.K. Podilchak “New Developments in compact antennas for picosatellites and other small satellites,” 3rd PocketQube Workshop, Glasgow, Scotland, Sept. 2019.
- S.K. Podilchak, et al., “Compact Microstrip-Based Folded-Shorted Patches by PCB Technology for Use on Microsatellites,” IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine – Special Issue on CubeSat Antennas, vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 88 – 95, Apr. 2017.
- A.H. Lokman, P.J. Soh, S. Azemi, S.K. Podilchak, S. Chalermwisutkul, M.F. Jamlos, A.A. Al-Hadi, P. Akkaraekthalin and S. Gao, “A Review of Antennas for Pico-Satellite Applications,” International Journal of Antennas and Propagation, pp. 1 – 17, April 2017.

Future work includes the more complete integration of the developed antennas with the picosatellite platform for dual-mode operation. Basically such that an antenna and solar panel can be fully integrated within the picosatellite bus.

The research within WP2 has led to the demonstration of various antenna designs for beam steering and application to satellite connectivity. Various polarization configurations were also examined. Operational frequencies are for the millimetre-wave range whilst exploiting leaky-wave and surface-wave electromagnetic principles for improved performance when compared to more conventional design approaches. As a result of this work, the fellow was also granted a European Microwave Prize. These efforts resulted in more than 5 peer reviewed journal and papers presented at international conferences:

- S.K. Podilchak, et al., “Analysis and Design of a Compact Leaky-wave Antenna for Wide-band Broadside Radiation,” Nature, Scientific Reports, Article Number: 17741, (2018).
- S.K. Podilchak, et al., "Design of a Polarization-Diverse Planar Leaky-Wave Antenna for Broadside Radiation," in IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 28672-28683, 2019.
- S.K. Podilchak, et al., "Analysis and Design of a Circularly-Polarized Planar Leaky-Wave Antenna," 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation & USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting, Boston, MA, 2018, pp. 2133-2134.
- S.K. Podilchak, et al., “Planar Antenna Design for Omnidirectional Conical Radiation through Cylindrical Leaky Waves," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 17, no. 10, pp. 1837-1841, 2018.
- S.K. Podilchak, et al., “Microwave Generation of X-waves by Means of a Planar Leaky-Wave Antenna," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 113, 144102 (2018).
- S.K. Podilchak et al., "Radially Periodic Leaky-Wave Antenna for Bessel Beam Generation Over a Wide-Frequency Range," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 66, no. 6, pp. 2828-2843, June 2018.
- V.G. Buendía and S.K. Podilchak, “Simple Surface-Wave Launching by Parallel-Plate and Microstrip Feeding for Leaky-Wave Antennas and Other Planar Guided-Wave Applications,” EuCAP 2018, London, UK, Apr. 2018.
- S. K. Podilchak, et al., “A Dual-Layer Leaky-Wave Antenna Designed for Linear Scanning Through Broadside,” IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 16, 2017.

The next step towards further exploitation of these results includes securing the necessary funding to continue the research work, identify market opportunities within the space sector, submitting additional proposals for further funding.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

All research objectives at the end of the project were fully met and have led to numerous new results extending the state-of-the-art which have been published in top peer reviewed journals in the field such as Nature Scientific Reports, IEEE Access, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, and IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, as well as international conferences such as IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation. In addition, the results have been presented in international workshops at 2nd and 3rd picosatellite conference which where held in The Netherlands and Glasgow in 2018 and 2019, respectfully. Applications of the developed RF technology include vehicle tracking, weather monitoring, maritime surveillance, crop growth analysis, and climate change observation.

CubeSat Antenna and Solar Panel and Antenna Integration