The ablation antenna design and verification of circumlunar free return and reentry flight vehicle

Abstract

The circumlunar return and reentry spacecraft is the first return and reentry spacecraft applied for deep space mission in China, which maneuvered into aerosphere of the earth at 2th cosmic velocity by suffering an even harder thermal environment with higher peak of thermal current density, higher specific heat enthalpy, higher quantity of heat and longer heating duration, compared with reentry capsule and spaceship in near earth orbit. Therefore, antenna used for circumlunar return and reentry spacecraft must satisfy an even harder design requirement. In this article, design techniques and performance verification process and result for a light and miniaturized ablation antenna operated within wide frequency range applied for circumlunar return and reentry mission are introduced. In-orbit verification result proves that heat insulation design, coordinated design of electrical and mechanical components of ablation antenna have been verified absolutely, and all of the performance complies with the target requirement of the spacecraft system.