[HN Gopher] Large Balloon Reflector: a potentially game-changing... ___________________________________________________________________ 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. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-10-27 23:00 UTC)