Summary
International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation
2009
Session Number:3A2
Session:
Number:3A2-1
Smart Broadband Astronaut Helmet Antenna for Lunar/Mars Surface Network
D. J. Triplett, Johnson J. H. Wang,
pp.775-778
Publication Date:2009/10/21
Online ISSN:2188-5079
Summary:
For terrestrial applications, development of broadband conformal helmet antenna has been successfully carried out [1, 2], and a smart helmet antenna for terrestrial applications was reported a decade ago [3]; both efforts were made by the senior author and a research team at Wang ElectroOpto Corporation (WEO). The development of a smart astronaut helmet antenna, presented in this paper, is motivated by the need for a helmet antenna in NASA’s planned Lunar/Mars exploration. As discussed in a recent news release on prime-time U.S. television, NASA now publicly envisions the Lunar Exploration to be conducted initially by 3 astronauts with a Lunar Electric Rover as a mobile base camp. Since WEO has been developing a smart platform antenna for the planned Lunar/Mars exploration [4], it is expedient and timely to develop a smart astronaut helmet antenna by crossfertilizing its helmet antenna, platform antenna, and smart antenna technologies. This paper presents such a smart astronaut helmet antenna design for possible application in NASA’s planned Lunar/Mars exploration.