A reconfigurable/deployable helical antenna for small satellites

In this paper a helical antenna that is deployed on a small satellite platform is presented. The antenna achieves reconfiguration in stages by deploying in and out of the satellite in a rotational matter to achieve frequency tuning. The antenna is circularly polarized with a wide bandwidth and a reasonable gain. The merging of deployable and reconfigurable antennas allows deployment on demand and adds more capabilities and adaptation ability to space communications.