Very Wideband VHF deployable antenna and RF matching network project
Conceptual design of the VDEA antenna
The Very Wideband VHF Deployable Antenna and RF matching network (VDEA) project of the European Space Agency (ESA) was formally launched on June 5. The project, which aims to develop a deployable antenna for VHF frequencies, will be developed by a consortium of European companies and universities composed of EOSOL, COMET engineering, Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain), Aeroxess (Germany) and Open Cosmos (UK).
An antenna to "find" water and other subsurface resources from space
Thanks to the rapid evolution of space technology and in particular to the evolution of deployable antennas, missions that until recently were technologically unfeasible are now becoming possible. This is the case of the project that has just started and that seeks to develop a deployable antenna in VHF frequencies capable of sounding the Earth's subsoil. This radar instrument will be able to probe the earth's subsoil in polar and arid regions with a capacity far superior to that of any current instrument. It will thus be able to map the basal topography and ice thickness, the internal structure of the ice sheet, detect the subglacial hydrological system and determine the melting/freezing regime at the base of ice shelves, as well as map the aquifers of the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.
For this project, the EOSOL-led consortium will design, manufacture and measure a dual-polarized log-periodic antenna capable of supporting peaks up to 1KW of power and an RF matching network capable of handling high peak power. The developed antenna will be integrated into future Earth observation radar instruments.
The project is divided into five different tasks:
Literature study and review of requirements
Trade-off analysis and preliminary antenna design
Detailed antenna design
Fabrication, assembly and testing of the first prototype
Conclusions, evaluation and recommendations.
At the end of the project (with an expected duration of 18 months), a working prototype will be available to serve as the basis for future earth observation radiometers at VHF frequencies.
This project is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA).