Analysis of spacecraft antenna farm interaction with equivalent current technique

In this paper data coming from a GNSS satellite measurement campaign will be used to perform an advanced analysis regarding the interaction between antennas, satellite structure and appendages. NF data have been measured in the Hybrid ESA RF and antenna Test Zone (HERTZ) at ESTEC [1]-[4]. Such a hybrid NF/FF system has recently been installed in the existing dual reflector CPTR. The installed system has been designed to perform spherical, cylindrical and planar NF measurements in the broad frequencies range 0.4-50 GHz. The analysis will be carried out using the MV-INSIGHT software [6] which, starting from the measured field of a DUT, computes equivalent currents on a surface conformal to the test object. The availability of the equivalent currents is a key point for an in depth analysis of DUT such as a spacecrafts since it allows to obtain exclusive diagnostic information like coupling between antennas and satellite structure.