Oxford Space Systems: Deployable Cassegrain Ka-band Space Antenna (DeCSA) Prototype

牛津空间系统(OSS)是一家屡获殊荣的早期技术企业，专注于为全球空间产业开发新一代可展开结构。多样化和经验丰富的OSS团队正在迅速将自己确立为空间部门的创新和敏捷补给者。尽管是许多地球静止通信卫星的重要组成部分，并且很可能成为大量较小的近地轨道(LEO)卫星的关键部分，但欧洲目前还没有经过飞行验证的大型可展开反射面天线(LDA)。欧盟目前所有的LDA都依赖于美国。欧洲航天局(ESA)最近发布了一份工作组报告，该报告得出结论，“从欧洲工业的角度来看，美国是绝对依赖的”，“大型反射器技术被认为是维持商业和战略竞争力的基本要求”。这一点在欧洲委员会、欧空局和欧洲防务机构今年发布的一份文件《关键空间技术对欧洲的战略非依赖性》中得到了进一步的呼应。LDA分为两类：偏置馈电和卡塞格伦配置。OSS已经开发了一种创新的、高度可扩展的偏置馈送LDA到TRL3，它在质量、成本和复杂性方面明显低于美国目前的产品。一家总部位于美国的公司已经与OSS接洽，以探索卡塞格伦LDA的开发。这是为计划于2018年第四季度发射的最多35颗低轨微卫星而设计的。在向潜在客户概述了其概要概念后，OSS相信，如果原型能在2017年年中之前提交，就可以获得一笔可观的出口订单。此外，OSS在欧盟和加拿大公司中也有类似的兴趣。通过这项SMART奖励获得匹配的资金将使英国空间技术得到快速发展，该技术具有极好的出口欧洲、美国和其他地区的潜力。

Oxford Space Systems (OSS) is an awarding-winning early-stage technology business focusedon developing a new generation of deployable structures for the global space industry. Thediverse and experienced OSS team is rapidly establishing itself as an innovative & agilesupplier to the space sector.Although an essential part of many geostationary telecomms satellites - and likely to form acritical part of a large number of smaller low earth orbit (LEO) satellites - Europe currentlydoes not have a flight-proven Large Deployable reflector Antenna (LDA). The EU presentlyrelies upon the US for all LDAs. The European Space Agency (ESA) recently published aWorking Group report which concluded, “From the European industry point of view, there isan absolute dependence on the USA”, and, “Large reflector technologies are considered afundamental requirement to maintain commercial and strategic competitiveness”. This wasfurther echoed in a document published this year, “Critical Space Technologies for EuropeanStrategic Non-Dependence”, produced by the European Commission, ESA, and the EuropeanDefence Agency.LDAs fall into two families: Offset Feed and Cassegrain configurations. OSS has alreadydeveloped an innovative and highly scalable Offset Feed LDA to TRL3 that is significantlylower in mass, cost and complexity than current offerings from the USA.OSS has been approached by a USA based company to explore the development of aCassegrain LDA. This is for a proposed constellation of up to 35 LEO microsats scheduledfor launch in Q4 2018. Having profiled its outline concept to the potential customer, OSS areconfident that a significant export order can be secured if a prototype can be presented by mid-2017. In addition, OSS has similar interest from both Eu and Canadian companies.Securing matched funding via this SMART award will enable the rapid development of a UKspace technology that has excellent export potential to Europe, USA and beyond.