Feed Assembly Design for INCUS

The INvestigation of Convective UpdraftS (INCUS) project is a new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission approved in 2022 that will observe and measure the movement of water droplets inside tropical storms from Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This data will be used to better understand the Convective Mass Flux (CMF) and improve weather models. The main instrument used for these measurements consists of a 1.6m diameter deployable mesh reflector antenna provided by Tendeg, a Ka-Band radar heritage of Raincube and a new feed assembly developed at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The instrument will fly aboard a Blue Canyon Technology (BCT) commercial bus with Colorado State University leading the science team. This paper presents the evolution of the feed assembly from preliminary design to final flight configuration. Fabricated with a hybrid process, including additive manufacturing of a wax model and aluminum casting of the final assembly and feeding waveguides all in one piece, the INCUS feed is a first under many points of view and it is paving the way for future flight projects to use this technology.