Northrop Antenna

Northrop Grumman’s strategic business unit Astro Aerospace has delivered 13 lightweight antennas capable of self-deploying in 200ms to MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates for integration into Canada’s RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM).

Claimed to be the critical part of the RCM Earth Observation satellites, the highly configurable antennas are stored energy monopoles that set out rapidly.

Northrop Grumman Astro Aerospace RCM programme manager Dan Johansen said: "Our continued emphasis on breakthrough engineering has resulted in a 100% success rate on more than 1,000 units on satellite missions."

The new antennas will be incorporated into the automatic identification system payload, which is aimed at offering an advanced maritime identification capability, therefore allowing ship identification, position, course and speed statistics.

"Our continued emphasis on breakthrough engineering has resulted in a 100% success rate on more than 1,000 units on satellite missions."

With an adaptable and reliable design, the antennas can be easily customised to specific applications and have been deployed in the Gemini and Apollo missions, in addition to the most recent US Air Force GPS satellites.

With versatile antennas being offered in monopole diameters from 1½in and any length up to 25ft, the stowed package is one of the smallest available and most compact for a deployable antenna of a given size.

Scheduled for launch in 2018, the RCM will comprise a three-spacecraft Earth observation satellite fleet that would offer new applications in addition to offering C-band radar data to existing RADARSAT-2 users.

Image: Northrop Grumman’s RCM antenna unit in deployed state. Photo: courtesy of Northrop Grumman.

Defence Technology