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

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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.