The Development of Inflatable Space Radar Reflectarrays

The need for advanced spaceborne radar antenna systems has been identified by the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) and the user community. The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been selected as the NASA center of excellence for inflatable structures, and has identified these structures as a possible way to advance radar array technology. JPL has combined this technology with some development work that is being conducted on flat passive radar arrays to create ultra-lightweight reflectarrays. To this end, JPL has teamed with ILC Dover, Inc., to design, manufacture, and test prototype arrays to demonstrate the validity of the approach. Inflatable, rigidizable structures offer several