Deployable membrane reflectors with offset configuration

This paper is concerned with the design of collapsible rib-tensioned surface (CRTS) reflectors with offset configuration. It had been previously thought that the CRTS concept might be limited to symmetric configurations, and so the main aim of the paper is to show the feasibility of offset configurations. Two different configurations of offset reflectors are introduced, with comparable surface errors but different prestress distributions. The first configuration can be used to design reflectors that have a conventional shape and acceptable prestress. The second configuration requires a non-standard shape of the surface, but makes it possible to achieve fully biaxial prestress distributions, equivalent to those previously obtained for symmetric CRTS reflectors.