Antennas for Science

Over the years TICRA has been involved in many antenna projects for science missions, both in space and on ground.

One of the large projects is the ESA Planck spacecraft, which was launched in May 2009. The antenna is a dual reflector system covering a large frequency band, from 30 to 900 GHz. A significant part of the work has been devoted to analyses of unavoidable reflector surface errors. Another important task is to determine the reflector shapes in orbit using in-flight measurements of the planet Jupiter.

The ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) is a radio-astronomy project consisting of an array of 12-metre telescopes to be located in the high-altitude Atacama desert in Chile. Each telescope is a symmetric Cassegrain design with 10 receiver front-end systems operating from 30 to 950 GHz. TICRA's work for ALMA has been to provide a more detailed analysis of the telescope than previously performed, including support leg blockage effects, detailed reflector geometry, surface deformations and front-end analyses.

Planck being prepared for tests
Credits: ESA-CNES-Arianespace/
Optique Vidéo du CSG - L. Mira

The 12 meter reflector antennas in the Atacama desert