Space-Frame Antenna

The space-frame antenna is a conceptual antenna structure that would be lightweight, deployable from compact stowage, and capable of deforming itself to a size, shape, and orientation required for a specific use. The underlying mechanical principle is the same as that of the amorphous rover described in the immediately preceding article: The space-frame antenna would be a trusslike structure consisting mostly of a tetrahedral mesh of nodes connected by variable-length struts. (The name of the antenna reflects the fact that such a structure has been called a “space frame.”) The deformation of the antenna to a desired size, shape, and orientation would be effected through coordinated lengthening and shorting of the struts. In principle, it would even be possible to form the space-frame antenna by deforming another space-frame structure (e.g., the amorphous rover) in this manner.