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

Oxford Space Systems（OSS）是一家屡获殊荣的早期技术企业，专注于为全球航天工业开发新一代可部署结构。欧洲航天局是一个全球性的卫星通信系统。欧盟目前依赖美国的所有LDAs。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，欧洲对美国有绝对的依赖”，“大型反射器技术被认为是保持商业和战略竞争力的基本要求”。这一点在今年出版的一份由欧洲委员会、欧空局和欧洲防务局编写的文件《欧洲战略非依赖性的关键空间技术》中得到了进一步的回应。OSS已经开发了一种创新的、高度可扩展的偏置馈电LDA，可扩展到TRL3，其质量、成本和复杂性明显低于美国目前的产品。一家美国公司已与OSS接洽，探讨卡塞格伦LDA的开发。这是一个计划于2018年第四季度发射的多达35颗LEO微卫星的拟议星座。在向潜在客户介绍了其概念大纲后，OSS相信，如果原型能够在2017年年中之前提交，则可以获得大量出口订单。此外，欧洲和加拿大的公司也对开放源码软件有着类似的兴趣。通过这项SMART奖获得相应的资金将使英国航天技术的快速发展成为可能，该技术具有向欧洲、美国和其他地区出口的巨大潜力。

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.