New concept of small antennas for telemetry and tracking trajectory on space reentry vehicles

For years, Astrium Space Transportation is the European prime contractor for space transportation and orbital infrastructure and has developed telemetry and tracking trajectory systems for space reentry vehicles. The antennas used on these vehicles are based on the classical wave guide technology. The advantages of these antennas are robustness, compatibility with severe reentry conditions but there are bulky. In this paper, we propose a new concept allowing to reduce significantly the dimensions of these antennas. This technology consists in a hybridization of a patch antenna in a wave guide.