The 13 m aperture space antenna reflectors for Engineering Test Satellite VIII

The Engineering Test Satellite VIII (ETS-VIII) will conduct orbital experiments on the large deployable antennas, as well as the active-phased-array feeder, and the on-board processor, which are all required to realize mobile satellite communication/broadcasting with hand-held terminals. The ETS-VIII will be launched by an H-IIA launch vehicle from NASDA´s Tanegashima Space Center in 2002. In these experiments, the 13 m aperture cable-mesh/truss antenna reflectors are employed for transmission and receiving antennas. Typical structural concepts are graphite-mesh, cable-mesh/rib, cable-mesh/mast, cable-mesh/truss and inflatable structure. They have many advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, we must choose the appropriate structural concept considering given mission requirements. Considering the surface accuracy, thermal stability and deployment reliability, we believe that the cable-mesh/truss structure is the most feasible for our mission requirement.