Investigation of Design Considerations for Telemetry, Tracking, and Command (TT&C) Antenna System on Naval Postgraduate School Orion Mini-Satellite.

This thesis investigates design requirements for the telemetry, tracking, and command TTC antenna system on the proposed Naval Postgraduate School Orion mini-satellite. Initial design criteria were developed by examination of the satellite itself, including launch vehicles, orbital profiles and ground interfaces. After consideration of these design constraints, a review of commercially available TTC antennas was conducted to determine compatibility with Orion, cumulating in recommendation of the conical log-spiral as the primary candidate for use on the spacecraft. The conical log-spiral is a low cost, space-qualified antenna capable of providing broadband omni-directional circularly polarized radiation from space, while fulfilling pattern coverage, space-ground link power margin, and transmitter-receiver isolation requirements for the Orion mini-satellite. Keywords Conical log spiral Conformal microstrip array Telemetry tracking, Command Mini Satellite.