Foldable Helical Antenna for CubeSat Stowing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cubesats face challenges in accommodating helical antennas due to size constraints, as existing solutions only allow axial confinement and deployment, which is insufficient for their compact stowing requirements.
Innovation Solution
A helical antenna design that can be folded both axially and radially to fit within a compact configuration, utilizing intertwined helical elements and vertical stiffeners with strain energy storage for deployment, allowing the antenna to unfold into a usable shape using stored energy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a helical antenna is used to provide greater signal gain, then the antenna size in deployed position increases, but the stowed volume required for launch exceeds cubesat constraints
Solution Approach 1:
The helical antenna is folded into a compact configuration where the helical elements are nested within each other, similar to nested dolls. The antenna transitions from a deployed helical shape to a compressed nested structure that fits within the cubesat volume constraints while maintaining the ability to provide sufficient signal gain when deployed
Solution Approach 2:
The antenna employs a deployable mechanism that allows it to dynamically transition between a compact stowed configuration and a deployed operational configuration. This dynamic capability enables the antenna to meet both the volume constraints during launch and the performance requirements once in orbit
2Device complexity
If a helical antenna is confined only in axial direction for stowing, then the deployment mechanism is simpler, but the stowed volume is too large for cubesat requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The antenna folding mechanism extends beyond simple axial compression by incorporating radial folding capabilities. This multi-dimensional approach to confinement allows the antenna to be compressed in both axial and radial directions, significantly reducing the stowed volume to fit within cubesat constraints while maintaining a manageable deployment mechanism
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the compact stowing and efficient deployment of a helical antenna on cubesats, providing the necessary signal gain with reduced power requirements while maintaining structural integrity and performance in space.
Implementation Method 1
The antenna supporting structure is a truss frame structure constructed of tubular, resiliently flexible elastic strain energy deployable beams which deform when the frame structure is contracted to store elastic strain energy for extending the antenna to its deployed configuration
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~4
AI summary
A helical antenna operable to be stowed on and deployed from a cubesat. The antenna includes two helical elements wound in opposite directions and defining an antenna column, where one of the helical elements is a conductive antenna element. The antenna also includes a plurality of circumferentially disposed vertical stiffeners extending along a length of the column and being coupled to the helical elements at each location where the vertical stiffeners and the helical elements cross. The helical elements and the vertical stiffeners are formed of a flexible material, such as a fiber glass, so that the antenna can be collapsed and stowed into a relatively small space. To position the antenna in the stowed configuration, the vertical stiffeners are folded on each other in a radial direction, and then the folded antenna is rolled in an axial direction from one end of the column to the other end.