Improvements in the design of reconfigurable reflector antennas

Three schemes are described which reduce or compensate for the effects of pillowing in reconfigurable mesh reflector antennas. A multiple attachment scheme is described and shown to be effective. In another method large buttons are used and the level of pillowing maintained with far fewer actuators. Finally a method of dielectric compensation is outlined which would be especially suitable for a retrofit. Among these the multiple attachment method is the most promising but would require elastic strings in practice. This runs counter to the proposed use of rigid member linkages used to reduce the number of actuators but it is similar to schemes used in deployable reflectors. The use of large buttons shows clear benefit and should be adopted in any future design using buttons to control the shape of a mesh. Finally dielectric compensation is effective but it adds to the antenna mass