PRECISION OF MESH-TYPE REFLECTORS FOR LARGE SPACE-BORNE ANTENNAS*

Knitted mesh reflectors for deploy able, large antennas are shown to conform to minimal surfaces, bounded by the mesh supporting structural members. Closed-form expressions and tabulated values are derived for the root mean square deviation of the mesh from the ideal, parabolic reflector. It is shown that for cylindrical antennas with quadrilateral bays and axisymmetric antennas, particularly those with strong offset of the antenna feed, substantial improvements in precision can be obtained by providing curvature to the mesh supports. Expressions are given for the optimal curvatures.