Low-Cost Reconfigurable Apertures for Cubesat Ground Stations

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Kepler Communications is a company establishing an in-space telecommunications network for enabling global machine-tomachine (M2M) communications using cubesats. There are significant research challenges in designing low-cost ground segment antennas that provide adaptive beam-steering capabilities. Phased arrays provide a comprehensive electronic solution at the expense of a large hard- ware footprint and cost, while mechanically-steered aperture antennas are slow and rely on moving parts.This project will explore and develop cost effective reconfigurable aperture antennas for Keplers ground stations based onleading-edge research on reconfigurable electromagnetic surfaces (RESs) being pursued by the applicants research group. Theunique RES architecture will provide a dynamic beam controllable antenna to Kepler using a fraction of the hardware and cost associated with traditional phased arrays, allowing the cost effective development of low-cost ground assets, and eventually, satellite antennas.