An advanced multiple-beam antenna for ITALSAT F2 satellite

The antenna subsystem of the ITALSAT F1 mission has been revised in order to save space for a further payload working in the L-band, which could be used on ITALSAT F2. The new antenna is based on a single offset reflector illuminated by separated feed arrays which, through a dichroic subreflector, share the same aperture at 20 and 30 GHz. The authors summarize the design of the antenna subsystem that utilizes new technologies such as dichroic surfaces and dual-mode beam forming networks with a considerable mass saving with respect to the previous mission. The results show a general gain improvement with reference to ITALSAT F1 measured gains. The computed performance is relevant to the gains achievable on the land masses of Italy, including beam pointing error and a loss budget based on measured results on the key hardware.<>