Abstract
The demand for large antennas in future space missions has increasingly stimulated the development of deployable membrane antenna structures owing to their light weight and small stowage volume. However, there is little literature providing a comprehensive review and comparison of different membrane antenna structures. Space-borne membrane antenna structures are mainly classified as either parabolic or planar membrane antenna structures. For parabolic membrane antenna structures, there are five deploying and forming methods, including inflation, inflation-rigidization, elastic ribs driven, Shape Memory Polymer (SMP)-inflation, and electrostatic forming. The development and detailed comparison of these five methods are presented. Then, properties of membrane materials (including polyester film and polyimide film) for parabolic membrane antennas are compared. Additionally, for planar membrane antenna structures, frame shapes have changed from circular to rectangular, and different tensioning systems have emerged successively, including single Miura–Natori, double, and multi-layer tensioning systems. Recent advances in structural configurations, tensioning system design, and dynamic analysis for planar membrane antenna structures are investigated. Finally, future trends for large space membrane antenna structures are pointed out and technical problems are proposed, including design and analysis of membrane structures, materials and processes, membrane packing, surface accuracy stability, and test and verification technology. Through a review of large deployable membrane antenna structures, guidance for space membrane-antenna research and applications is provided.
Highlights
With an increasing demand for large-aperture space-borne antennas, deployable membrane antennas have been attracting interest in space research areas
Structural characteristics and application prospects of inflatable antennas were summarized in Refs. [12,13,14], and advances in parabolic membrane antennas over the past decades were presented in Refs. [15, 16], characteristic comparisons were not considered among these membrane antenna structures
A typical planar membrane antenna structure is mainly composed of a deployable frame and a multi-layer flexible membrane, which is supported by the frame [40]
Summary
With an increasing demand for large-aperture (hundreds of square meters or more) space-borne antennas, deployable membrane antennas have been attracting interest in space research areas. There are two main kinds of space-borne membrane antenna structures: parabolic and planar membrane antenna structures. In order to promote membrane antenna progress, it is necessary to review the development of deployable membrane antenna structures and provide guidance for space membrane-antenna researchers. [12,13,14], and advances in parabolic membrane antennas over the past decades were presented in Refs. [15, 16], characteristic comparisons were not considered among these membrane antenna structures. There has been little literature reviewing recent developments and providing a comprehensive comparison of different membrane antenna structures. Aimed at the problems described above, this paper presents recent advances, characteristic comparisons, technical problems, and future trends for large membrane antenna structures
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