Disturbance Impulse Effects on Large Umbrella Space Reflector Dynamics

Large umbrella space antennas are essential for communication, monitoring and observation of Earth and space objects. Despite investigations devoted to space antenna dynamics, the disturbance impulse shape effect on the root mean square error of spacecraft antenna reflecting surface has not been studied. This paper overcomes this gap describing disturbance impulse impact on root mean square error of spacecraft antenna reflecting surface relative to paraboloid via nonlinear finite element method. Based on numerical results root mean square dependency on disturbance time for rectangular and sine impulses was calculated. This approach could be applied in studying antenna reflecting surface response on disturbance impulse for different types of perspective large space antennas. INTRODUCTION Large space parabolic antennas (LSPA) or space reflectors (with aperture 12 m and more) are vital for mobile communication, meteorological monitoring tools, observation of Earth and space objects. Such antennas have high gain and provide highly frequent wide-band signal transmission. In fully deployed state LSPA involve large cable stayed-shell structures. Their reflecting surface is a thin conductive molybdenum wire mesh with diameters part of millimeter and coated by gold (for example, AstroMesh antenna) [1]. The reflecting surface should be as close as possible to paraboloid surface to achieve improved radiotechnical parameters such as gain [2]. Integral qualitative geometrical parameter of reflecting surface is root mean square (RMS) error being related to the paraboloid surface