[HN Gopher] Large Balloon Reflector: a potentially game-changing...
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Large Balloon Reflector: a potentially game-changing antenna design
Author : foota
Score : 33 points
Date : 2023-10-27 21:08 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nasa.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nasa.gov)
| kunwon1 wrote:
| Makes me wonder about an inflatable balloon antenna for amateur
| radio. I wonder how hard it would be to do this sort of
| fabrication (aluminizing the inside of a balloon) as an amateur
|
| Better pictures here https://www.freefallaerospace.com/nasa-
| balloon/
| itishappy wrote:
| buy space blanket (aluminized mylar)
|
| tape it over a garbage can
|
| suck
|
| ???
|
| profit
| cwkoss wrote:
| greenpowerscience is a fun channel who did a neat version of
| this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1GV3FIOR6E
| dmbche wrote:
| I can't see a picture of the concave shape, I was under the
| impression that the design is that one third of the sphere is
| collapsed inside itself to make a nice concave antenna that's
| cheap and light - is this what's happenning?
|
| Edit0: Nope! Part of the sphere is transparent, and the inside is
| reflective. Nothing collapsed.
|
| And it's working very similarily to a normal parabolic antennae,
| but being inflatable it's way lighter/smaller, leaving more
| weight and room for power and instruments. Massive win!
| aimor wrote:
| A good idea. I wonder how robust it is to small debris, I assume
| it won't pop but will the thin material fold up on itself if
| there's a hole?
| Terr_ wrote:
| I guess it depends on the odds (impacts per cross-section per
| time) for different debris size/composition/speeds in the
| planned orbit. I'm sure _somebody 's_ studying that, but I'm
| also sure it must involve a lot of complicated tables.
|
| The particular mini-satellite is slated for a 6-month mission,
| so presumably they think it'll survive at least that long.
| morcheeba wrote:
| That was my first thought, too. My ideas was to make the
| plastic UV-curable so it would become rigid and not require
| inflation. I looked it up, and that's what they're doing - UV-
| curable ribs. It's also not a sphere; it has an inflatable
| ring. Pictures & paper here:
| https://asteroid.arizona.edu/KABAND_Inflatable_v3_public.pdf
| ortusdux wrote:
| Reminds me of Project Echo
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Echo
|
| Remastered documentary:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19kAuAVAnDc
|
| Scott Manley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19kAuAVAnDc
| itishappy wrote:
| Also NASA's Inflatable Antenna Experiment, which looks like it
| spun off a successful commercial product.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflatable_Antenna_Experiment
|
| https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2010/ps_5.html
|
| https://www.cubic.com/inflatable-satellite-antenna
| uoaei wrote:
| I'm a little confused because the article uses 'spherical' and
| 'parabolic' seemingly interchangeably. I'm sure the scientists
| know what they're doing but just found the imprecision a bit odd
| for a nasa.gov article.
| andreareina wrote:
| I understood it as, the structure is spherical, with one
| parabolic surface that acts as the antenna.
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(page generated 2023-10-27 23:00 UTC)