TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OPPORTUNITY: Lightweight, Self-Deployable Helical Antenna (MFS-TOPS-113)

NASA�s Technology Transfer Program solicits inquiries from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize, manufacture and market the following technology. License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use. NASA provides no funding in conjunction with these potential licenses. THE TECHNOLOGY: SmallSats are experiencing increasing adoption in the satellite industry. While initially used primarily for technology demonstrations in low Earth orbit (LEO), enhanced capabilities have enabled SmallSat use for a broad number of applications. Today, sending small spacecraft beyond LEO to Lunar or deep space environments is attracting both scientific and commercial interest. Such missions are mass and volume constrained, yet must provide high data rate communications. Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center identified the need for a small form factor antenna to provide high data rate communications for such missions. In response, they developed a self-deployable helical antenna that is lightweight, low volume, and has low stowage thickness while delivering high data rate performance. NASA's newly developed antenna is lightweight (at or below 2 grams), low volume (at or below 1.2 cm3), and low stowage thickness (approx. 0.7 mm), all while delivering high performance (at or above 10 dBi gain). The antenna includes a novel design-material combination in a helical coil conformation. The design allows the antenna to compress for stowage (e.g., satellite launch), then self-deploy at the desired time in orbit. NASA's lightweight, self-deployable helical antenna can be integrated into a thin-film solar array (or other large deployable structures). Integrating antenna elements into deployable structures such as power generation arrays allows spacecraft designers to maximize the inherently limited resources (e.g., mass, volume, surface area) available in a small spacecraft. When used as a standalone...