Development of a Compact KA-Band Antenna Pointing Mechanism for Intersatellite Links on Small Satellites

The Institute of Astronautics (LRT) at Technische Universitat Munchen is currently developing a lightweight, high data-rate, intersatellite-link antenna (LISA) in the Ka-band for application on small satellites. The driving design constraint to the pointing mechanism is a compact envelope of the satellite. For this reason a non-gimbal two-degree-of-freedom pointing design was chosen. Two-low loss Ka-band wave guide rotary joints have to be introduced for the signal transmission from the antenna into the satellite. This paper will present the design solutions and constructional details for a precise pointing and the implementation of the Ka-band rotary joints.