Deployable Petal-Type Millimeter-Wave Radio Reflectors for Small Spacecraft

We describe a “petal-type” concept for a deployable parabolic reflector that may be stowed on- board a small ESPA-class spacecraft and provide sufficient deployed surface shape repeatability for operation at radio frequencies as high as 175 GHz. While petal-type reflectors have been demonstrated for high radio frequencies at large sizes and such reflectors have been developed for small spacecraft at lower frequencies, this work demonstrates performance sufficient for millimeter-wave radio at size-scales relevant for small spacecraft using deployment repeatability experiments on a full-scale test article.