An omni antenna is a teardrop-shaped piece of hardware that enables a satellite to communicate with ground systems on Earth. The antenna is part of a spacecraft’s telemetry, tracking and command subsystem, which transmits and receives signals. Aerospace company Lockheed Martin has 3D printed and qualified this piece of hardware for spaceflight. It has now been integrated onto a GPS III satellite.
The form of the new 3D-printed omni antenna is similar to its predecessor, but it’s now one solid piece as opposed to being made up of multiple parts that would otherwise need to be hand-soldered together.
The new antenna contains unique geometric features that can only be fabricated using additive manufacturing. Those features specifically contribute to defect reduction associated with plating and soldering operations of the antenna’s predecessor.
“The process is easily repeatable, which cuts out variabilities in the build and test process,” said Larry Loh, director of engineering technology and advanced manufacturing at Lockheed Martin Space. “By adopting this technology, we’re able to produce these products within a tighter range than previously hand built parts.”
What does the qualification process look like?
The intensive qualification process required the product to go through extreme temperatures. It was shaken to prove that it can survive in the harsh environment of space.
The qualification of this antenna was especially rigorous because it was produced through additive manufacturing. The team not only had to qualify the process of making the hardware, but they also had to qualify the type of aluminum they used: an aluminum 6061-based alloy. They validated that the aluminum can consistently be 3D-printed and it will have the same radio frequency properties every time.
Once the qualification was successfully executed, the first flight unit was delivered to assembly, test and launch operations for installation.
The omni antenna is now integrated onto GPS III Space Vehicle 10 and is expected to launch into space by 2026. The qualified process and design will next be used on all future GPS IIIF satellites.
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