Results of a Feasibility Study for the Antennas of a European DBS Satellite

This paper presents the main results of a feasibility study aimed at defining the antenna subsystem of a European DBS satellite. The antennas of the satellite radiate a large number of channels over seven multinational, partially overlapping, coverages. The mass and volume optimization requires the minimization of the number of antennas and therefore each antenna of the subsystem must produce more than one coverage. A solution based on multiple contoured beam configurations is presented. Coverage overlapping is obtained by horn sharing whilst beam isolation is provided through frequency diversity and/or polarization discrimination.