Shaped, fixed antenna for one gigabit per second data rate transmission from earth exploration satellites in low earth orbit

Abstract

The use of a shaped, fxed, direct broadcast Ka-band antenna that transmits a signal over all of the Earth visible from the satellite to communicate between low Earth orbit satellites and ground stations opens new and exciting possibilities for mission design. Transmitting to the planned Ka-band ground terminals of the NASA Near Earth Network (NEN) with a high-power transmitter, such an antenna can achieve gigabit per second data rates. Using a low-power, low-mass transmitter, the small size of the antenna would allow multimegabit per second downlinks from CubeSats.