A thermally opaque, millimeter-wave radome for space

A thermally opaque radome, suitable for space applications is described. Because of the low-loss character of the materials from which it is constructed, it can be fabricated with little regard for the effects of tolerances. The insertion loss was measured between 18 and 50 GHz and found to be less than 0.25 dB. Theoretical calculations predict that the radome should also remain quite usable at frequencies well outside this band.