Next Generation Phased Arrays for Deep Space Communications

In the coming decades there is going to be a significant increase in the number of spacecrafts, orbiters, landers and rovers that will be launched into deep space on various exploration missions. The ground segment supporting such missions primarily consists of a high gain parabolic reflector antenna, which are legacy systems and represents a single point of failure. Moreover, with the return of humans to moon and the establishment of the lunar gateway, there will be significant increase in data and command traffic between ground control and space segment. Additionally with the entry of commercial parties, there will be a large number of constellations of satellites launched into low earth orbit (LEO), geostationary earth orbit (GEO) and Low lunar orbit (LLO). All of these will place significant stress on existing communications architecture. This paper examines the use of new and emerging technologies to develop innovative planar array tiles for active electronically scanned array (AESA) based deep space communications architecture that is highly modular, scalable and enabling multibeam operations across multiple spacecrafts in space.