Abstract
With the development of radio telescope antennas with large apertures, high gain, and wide frequency bands, compensation methods, such as mechanical or electronic compensation, are obviously essential to ensure the electrical performance of antennas that work in complex environments. Since traditional compensation methods can only adjust antenna pointing but not the surface accuracy, which are limited for obtaining high surface precision and aperture efficiency, active surface adjustment has become an indispensable tool in this field. Therefore, the development process of electrical performance compensation methods for radio telescope antennas is introduced. Further, a series of analyses of the five key technologies of active surface adjustment is presented. Then, four typical large antennas that have been designed with active main reflector technology are presented and compared. Finally, future research directions and suggestions for reflector antenna compensation methods based on active surface adjustment are presented.
Highlights
A radio telescope is a precise instrument designed to mainly receive radio waves from celestial bodies, which can radiate electromagnetic waves
As the most commonly used radio telescope antennas, reflector antennas [3, 4] can implement a large aperture and narrow beam, with high resolution and high sensitivity; they are widely used in the fields of radio astronomy, radar, communication, and space exploration [5, 6]
A large radio telescope operating in a complex environment is affected by gravity, temperature, wind, and other factors, which lead to structure distortion
Summary
A radio telescope is a precise instrument designed to mainly receive radio waves from celestial bodies, which can radiate electromagnetic waves. With the rapid development of modern science and technology, the antenna design and manufacture and feeding technology have been greatly upgraded; the large, medium, and small sizes of ground-based radio telescope antennas should be redefined. It is necessary to adjust the antenna structure and shape to compensate for the loss of electric performance For this purpose, the paper discusses the development process of electric performance compensation methods for radio telescopes, presents the characteristics of large antennas with the application of the active surface adjustment, summarizes the key active adjustment technologies, compares typical large antennas using active adjustment for the antenna main reflectors, and eventually discusses the structure design program and research proposal for active surface compensation of the QiTai Telescope (QTT) antenna in Xinjiang, China. The presented content provides a technical reference for performance assurance and improvement of ultra-large radio telescopes
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