SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE CREATION OF DEPLOYABLE RING-SHAPEDSPACE ANTENNA REFLECTORS USING FLEXIBLE RODS AND ROPES

摘要

Despite that theoretical, design and experimental studiesconnected with the creation of large deployable antennareflectors have already been carried out for quite a longtime, this area still remains of lively interest and hasgood application prospects. An example is the programof the European Space Agency (ESA) on the creation ofa qualified variant of a 15 m deployable space offsetreflector. It should be said that by the time the ESAadopted a decision on the implementation of this pro-gram,a deployable space reflector 7 m in diameter hadalready been created in Georgia and, in 1999, this spacereflector was successfully tested aboard the orbital sta-tion'Mir' according to the joint Georgian-Russian pro-gram.However, for the reasons unknown to us, the Georgianparty, which together with other partners had won theinternational tender, had no chance, to participate in theESA program, though the drawings and basic designprinciples of the so-to-say 'European' deployable spacereflector design were based on the reflector design vari-antdeveloped in Georgia and successfully tested in thespace environment.Moreover, we were denied even an access to scientificand technical information within the framework of theESA program.We mention these facts now only with one aim – wethink that the realization of the ESA program would bemore effective if the Georgian specialists – authors ofspace antenna reflector designs – could also participatein it.All the same, the Georgian Institute for Space Construc-tions,with its rather limited technical and financialmeans, continues developing new design principles forlarge space deployable systems [1].In this report, we would like to discuss some results ofinvestigations of the joint behavior of flexible elementsin pre-stressed ring-shaped systems. In particular, weconsider the influence of ring behavior on the reflectingsurface accuracy, determine the characteristics of jointoperation of rods and ropes in the deployment process and represent one of the modes of reflector-to-satelliteattachment.We also consider our new variant of the deployable an-tennareflector which has been developed by the team ofGeorgian designers headed by Professor E. Medzmari-ashvili.