Reconfigurable antenna systems for European multimission satellites

The most promising antenna system for DBS has been identified in a reconfigurable dual antenna configuration (circular polarization) with aperture diameters of 2.5 m to be mounted on the spacecraft sidewalls. Beam reconfigurability foresees the combination of coverages two, three, four and five in two supercoverages (2+3 and 4+5, respectively). Channel routing is accomplished by using variable power dividers, while feed sharing on the same polarization among overlapping beams is avoided by a suitable coverage assignment among the two antennas. A preliminary mass estimate indicates that the reconfigurable dual antenna weight is in the order of 110 kg, against the 80 kg of the single antenna. The computed RF powers for each channel are given.<>