A dual reflector system with a reconformable subreflector

The paper describes the design of a dual reflector spacecraft antenna with a circular main reflector aperture, shaped to produce an elliptical beam. A design is made with two different subreflector shapes which, when used with the same shaped main reflector, will generate elliptical beams rotated 90/spl deg/ with respect to each other. During the design optimization it is assumed that the subreflector is fully reconformable, i.e. any desired shape can be accomplished. The impact of using a particular implementation of a reconformable surface with a specified number of control points, implying that the desired shape can only be met with a particular tolerance, is assessed.