Low-Cost Broadband K/Ka-Band Reflector Antenna for Near Earth and Deep Space Planetary Exploration

A low-cost K/Ka-band broadband circularly polarized reflector antenna was designed to operate over the Space to Earth frequency band for both Near-Earth and Deep-Space as assigned by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The frequency assignments are 25.5 to 27 GHz 31.8 to 32.3 GHz, for Near-Earth and Deep-Space downlink, respectively. To reduce cost and fabrication time the reflectors were machined from aluminum and painted with a conductive white paint which reduced the antenna's temperature variation in a space environment. The antenna was fabricated and tested in a compact antenna range with a measured efficiency of 40% or greater across the frequency bands.