Development of Novel Space Antenna Surface Material and Manufacturing Processes

Oxford Space Systems (OSS) is a multi-award winning early-stage technology business which is commercialisation a new generation of deployable structures for the global space industry. Although an essential part of many geostationary telecomms satellites - and predicted to form a critical part of a large number of low earth orbit microsat satellite contellations - Europe currently does not have a flight-proven and commercially available deployable reflector antenna. The EU relies upon the USA for all flight hardware and suffers cost penalties and technical restrictictions as a result. OSS will develop and characterise a highly innovative reflector surface material, together with new manufacturing processes, intended to provide a disruptive and cost-competitive UK alternative for the space sector. This novel antenna surface material will permit OSS to offer a cutting-edge UK product to the global space market: an antenna that is lighter, less complex and lower cost than those in current commercial demand.