The invention relates to radio engineering field, specifically deployable space reflectors, and it can be used for large size space antennas.
A mechanical support frame of a space reflector is known (see patent GE 6801, class H01Q 15/16, 10.01.2018) that comprises a mechanical support ring of the space reflector; rings composed of V-shaped foldable rods placed in parallel at the reflector working and rear sides; stanchions between these rods; brackets that hingedly connect the ends of the rods to each other and to the stanchions in V-shape manner; a deploying mechanism composed of cables for winding on drums and drums attached to connecting brackets fastened on two stanchions disposed diametrically opposite to rollers mounted by projections on connecting brackets and rods in intermediate points of breaking rods foldable in V-shape manner, that are attached to the drums at one end, led on the intermediate rods of breaking of the V-shaped foldable rods and on rollers mounted on projections of the brackets, and with the other end is attached to the projections of the brackets by means of tensioning springs; besides, helical twisting springs are mounted on the intermediate axes of breaking the V-shaped foldable rods placed in parallel at the working and rear sides, with arms fastened from the inside of these rods; the brackets that hingedly connect of the ends of the V-foldable rods to each other and to the stanchions are made with the arms joined at angles to each other and have II-shape diagonal grooves made from the side of the stanchions, and symmetrical grooves are made in the walls next to the II-shape diagonal grooves and transverse cylindrical axes are inserted; besides, fixtures are mounted on the stanchions to turn the stanchions about the transverse cylindrical axes, and flexible vibration compensators are installed between the brackets of the V-foldable rods of the support ring and the stanchion ends, that are made in the form of cylindrical springs of twisting, which are attached to the brackets at one end, and at the ends of the stanchions at other ends.
The disadvantage of the space reflector is that the deployable ring has low deployment reliability due to the oscillation of the rods when stretching the flexible stretching straps designed for connecting the foldable rods that are hingedly interconnected, and also it is impossible to maintain the accuracy of the geometric shape of the deploying ring.
A deployable space reflector is known (see patent GE 3604, class H 01 Q 15/20, 25.08.2005), comprising a tensioning frame with developable elements forming an approximate surface of the reflector, with an elastic reflector attached thereto; tensioning frame of the deploying ring consisting of hingedly interconnected rods and connected to the peripheral ends of the reflector tensioning frame, and the deploying ring is provided with an opening mechanism with a drive; besides, at the peripheral ends of the developable elements of the reflector tensioning frame, diagonal rods are attached parallel to each other or inclined with the end bended towards the periphery from the elastic reflector fastening side, and on these diagonal rods, a deployable dome frame is connected by fixed or movable connections from the outside of the tensioning frame, with the elastic reflector mounted thereon such that is capable of merging with the reflector tensioning frame to assume the reflector with symmetrical, asymmetrical, or offset, circular in plan, oval, or polygonal configuration; the stems of the deploying ring are of equal length and are hingedly connected in pairs with each other, and the junction of these rods is located in the middle of the length of the rods or offset from the middle, with the ends of the rods of adjacent pairs of rings being connected to each other hingedly, and to the diagonal rods of the reflector tensioning frame—fixedly or with the capability of sliding, the flexible reflector is made of a whole tensionable elastic mesh, membrane, or of the later composed of individual parts, and the developable elements of the reflector tensioning frame are elastic sheets or flat ribs made of membranes; and the diagonal rods attached to their ends are rigid rods of equal or different lengths; besides, the flat ribs of the reflector tensioning frame are connected to each other with radial, radial-ring, parallel, triangular, rectangular or hexagonal pattern in a plan, and intermediate ribs of rigidity are mounted on the flat ribs of the reflector tensioning frame or on the line of intersection of these ribs; and the connections of the reflector frame and the support frame are stanchions and/or braces; besides, the ends of the braces are connected to the ends of the stanchions and/or each other, while the end stanchion or the end brace is connected to the diagonal rod; besides, the elements of the reflector frame, the elements of the supporframe and their connections are located in one or different planes and form a radial, radial-ring or radial-lattice parallel, rectangular, triangular or hexagonal structure in the plan, or a composite structure composed of these structures; and the connections of the ends of the rigid rods adjacent to the deploying ring to the rod of the immovably attached surface forming tensioning frame are cylindrical joints; being movably connected to cardan joints comprising cylindrical joints, and cylindrical units of diagonally arranged vertices of joint rectangles are attached to whole or telescopic rods; besides, the deploying ring is provided with a fixing mechanism, which is a ratchet mechanism, and is arranged on single or telescopic rods attached to a cylindrical unit; and limiters are placed between the ends of the pairs of connecting rods of the deploying ring connected to the diagonal rods with the capability of moving, to limit the movement of these ends; besides, springs for damping the ends of the rods are put on them; and the opening mechanism with a drive of the deploying ring drive is a load-bearing cable, with one end with a spring compensator attached to the end of one of the rods of the deployable ring that are hingedly connected to each other, led along this rod on bearings mounted diagonally on the ends of the rods, and the other end is attached to the drum attached to the deploying ring to wind the load-bearing cable that is connected to the drive.
The disadvantage of the known space reflector antenna is that the deployable ring has low deployment reliability due to the oscillation of the rods when stretching the flexible stretching straps designed for connecting the folding rods that are hingedly interconnected, and also it is impossible to maintain the accuracy of the geometric shape of the deploying ring.
A light weight reflector antenna is known for concentrating radiation (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,145, Class H 01 Q 15/20, 21.10.1977), comprising a deploying ring composed of flexible rods with a reflector attached to it; the deploying ring has a truss having a stanchion-diagonal, in the upper and lower boom joints of which a flexible heavy pre-stensioned center is attached, to which a reflector is attached, and the tensioned center consists of flexible straps, the upper concave and lower convex meshes formed by intersecting, which with their peripheral units are attached to the units of the upper boom and the lower boom of the deploying ring; the meshed have a triangular cell shape, the sides of the triangle are flexible rods, and their intersection forms units that coincide with the vertices of the triangle, the upper concave mesh has a reflector on the bottom, and the concave mesh, which is placed on the top of the reflector with its units, is also connected by flexible stanchions to the corresponding units of the lower, convex mesh, but it happens so that the flexible stanchion, which extends from the upper mesh unit to the lower mesh unit, is passed through the reflector. In addition, the flexible stanchion is provided with tensioning springs. The construction of the central part in this form is associated with many positive factors, including: the upper and lower meshes, with their stretching, which always exceeds the compressive force generated in the mesh rods by various factors, is a geometrically invariant system; as for the tensile forces in the meshes, they are generated by stretching the ridges of the flexible stanchions, which is carried out by the booms placed on it. The structure of such a stretched and geometrically unchanged center also ensures that the ring achieves the shape of an oval and maintains it.
The disadvantage of the known reflector is the low reliability of the structure and its complexity. Although it has a stable form it is well suited to the calculations. Based on these theoretical calculations and diagrams, a geometric shape is precisely achieved. In real conditions, after the inaccuracy of the design of the technological assumptions and the selection of the center elements only by theoretical calculations, deviations from the design location of the reflector fastening units still occur. In such a case, the structure of the center does not allow the adjustment of inaccuracies found after its manufacture.
Also, it is known a reflective antenna system of a deployable reflector (see U.S. Ser. No. 10/516,216, class H 01Q15/16, H 01Q7/02, 18.07.2019), that comprises a tensioning ring composed of pantographs with its structure, by which the upper and lower units of the pantograph are connected to the upper and lower peripheral units of the flexible central part of the reflector antenna; a reflector antenna reflector is attached to the surface of the central part, the deploying ring composed of a pantograph has upper and lower boom sections consisting of flexible rods; which together with the pantograph form a pre-tensioned cable-rod system, the tensioning forces of the flexible upper and lower booms are selected in such a way that they always exceed the compressive forces that are also generated in them by the reflector center tensioning. In order for the system to maintain geometric invariability, i.e. the upper and lower booms to be constantly stretched, therefore it is necessary that the tensioning forces generated by the pantographs exceed the compressive forces generated by the tensioning of the center of the reflector antenna in the booms; at the same time, the deploying ring is deployed and, as a result, the upper and lower booms are stretched by pulling the load-bearing cable passed through unilaterally inclined pantographs by an electric drive in the direction of each other, and in the last stage of the deployment of the deploying ring with the load-bearing cable, the movement of the upper and lower units towards each other is restricted; with a tube attached to one unit, in which the cable is passed, it is abutted and folded at the second unit. From this point on, the structure of the deploying ring changes and is supplemented by stanchions made of rigid rods.
The disadvantage of the known reflector is the low reliability and complexity of the construction, which is caused by the overtension of the levers under the influence of the tensioning cable passed in the unilaterally located levers of the pantograph of the deploying ring. Such a picture of the position of the load-bearing cable causes asymmetric tensioning of the ring. Performing flexible joints of the upper and lower booms with one-sided joints, on the one hand, requires them to be stretched so that the tensile force exceeds the compressive force directed towards the center, and on the other hand—to maintain the value of this stretch during the whole operation, which is specifically difficult to achieve, at the last stage of deployment of the ring, a change in the specific structure of the ring, which is manifested by the formation of stanchions therein, leads to an increase in the weight of the construction and the existence of a complex scheme of locking mechanisms, in addition to the above, the use of flexible rods in the booms adversely alters the mechanics of the deploying ring, especially maintaining its stability in the process of oscillations.
The technical result of the invention is improving the reliability of the reflector structure by maintaining the accuracy of the geometric shape of the deploying ring and increasing the synchronicity and maintaining the geometric shape of the reflector, as well as reducing the structure weight and simplifying the structure.
The essense of the invention is that the deployable reflector comprises an elastic reflector 53 composed of elastic rods, a reflector tensioning frame 1, a reflector tensioning frame 1 with a deploying ring 2 comprising an upper 28 and lower 29 booms composed of hingedly interconnected lower 14 and upper 15 rods; and connected to the peripheral ends of the reflector tensioning frame 1; the adjacent lower 14 and upper 15 rods of the upper and lower booms are connected to each other by space-oriented units 11 comprising foldable rods connecting consoles 76 to which key sheets 75 are attached, and are connected to the reflector 53 unit 52, the deploying ring 2 is provided with an opening mechanism with a drive 33, which is a load-bearing cable 27, one end of which is fixed to a roller 30 existing at the ends of the foldable rods 14, 15 of the upper 28 and also the lower 29 booms, and the other end is mounted on an electric drive 33 and is capable of winding on a drum 35 mounted on the drive axis; sections 3 are composed of hingedly interconnected elastic foldable rods 14, 15 of the deploying ring, each of the sections also comprising crosswise intersecting pantographic levers 5 interconnected by a cylindrical joint 6 (4), upper concave 40 and a lower convex meshes 41 that are fastened with their peripheral units in the units 38, 39 of attachment of the meshes to the upper 28 boom and, respectively, to the lower 29 boom of the deploying ring 2; flexible stanchions 46, 47 mounted between the upper 28 and lower 29 booms that are elastic rods; besides, the scissors-like levers 7 are located on the central unit 6 at the intersection of the crosswise intersecting pantograph levers 5, with sleeves 8 put on on the ends of the pantograph levers 5 from another side; also on the ends of the upper and lower boom rods 14.15, sleeves 16 for putting on are disposed, on which cylindrical joints 17 are disposed; besides, the expansion ring 2 comprises the upper and lower foldable rods connecting means made in the form of an elastic rod 62 that is attached by one end to the axis 61 of the intermediate connecting cylindrical joint 20 of the foldable rods 14, 15, and by the other end is fastened on a reel 65 disposed on the rotary axis 64 of the cylindrical joints 4 that connect the intersecting pantographic levers 5, and is capable of winding thereon, or in the form of a tube 70 the reel has on its wings cutouts 67 for fixing the plates 22 that connect the foldable rods in the folded state, and, also, between the spatially oriented units 11 which connect the hingedly interconnected adjacent upper and lower boom rods 14.15, there is provided a distance adjusting telescopic limiters (100) which are attached to the spatially oriented units 11; in addition, it also comprises a reflector fixing mesh 55 with triangular cells composed of elastic rods 54 that is fastened in the units 52 of connection of the reflecting mesh 53 rods, and with 56 units with springs 56 at its end, together with the reflector 53, is fastened in the units 38 of attachment of meshes to the upper boom, that are attached to the projection 36 of the spatially oriented units 11 of the upper boom, on the shelf 58 located above the units; besides, the upper concave and lower convex meshes 40, 41 are composed of triangular shape cells by the units of connection of the sides of which the upper concave and lower convex meshes 40,41 are connected to the reflective mesh 53; and on the elastic rods 54 of the reflector fixing mesh 55, when they are positioned at different levels, additional elastic rods 88 are arranged on the reflector attachment side on the elastic rods 54 to equalize their levels; besides, the stanchions consisting of flexible upper 46 and lower 47 portions mounted between the upper concave mesh and the lower convex mesh are provided with tensioning springs 50 and with spring-length regulating devices mounted inside the springs, that is made in the form of a telescopic limiter 89; besides, the reflective mesh is attached to the intersection units 43 of the elastic rods of the upper concave mesh 40 directly, or in the upper concave mesh units 43 the lower ends are fastened with a spatial shape gasket 51, the upper ends of which are attached to the tensioned reflector 53 units 52 and to the reflector fixing mesh disposed above or under it; besides, the spatial shape gasket 51 is capable of changing the length between its lower and upper parts.
The scissor-like levers 7 located at the central unit at the intersection of the pantographic levers 5 with the sleeves put on them are designed to be disposed in the plane of the section 3 of the pantographic levers 5 and symmetrically with respect to the longitudinal symmetry axes.
The load-bearing cables 27 are led separately onto rollers fastened on axes of cylindrical joints of the upper and lower booms oriented units 11 and their one ends are fixed on a roller along the upper and lower booms, while the other ends are fixed in the electric drives.
The electric drives of the deploying mechanism 33 are fastened to one of the rollers of the upper, as well as of the lower boom, and the load-bearing cable winding drums 35 are fastened to the axis of the electric drives.
One end of the flexible stanchions 92 that connect the upper concave mesh and the lower convex mesh is fastened in the units 43 of intersection of the triangular cells that constitute the upper convex mesh 43, and the other end is passed through a hole 93 made in the intersection unit 41 of the elastic rods of the lower convex mesh 41 and is attached to the unit of intersection of the flexible rods 44 of the lower convex mesh at the 96 end of the length-adjusting screw device 96 located inside the tensioning spring 94 abutted from outside; at the same time, to the hole 93 made in the intersection units 45 adjacently attached is a latch 98, 99 for limiting the motion of the flexible stand 92 tensioning spring 94.
Flexible stanchions connecting the upper concave mesh and the lower convex mesh are made in two parts 46, 47 and the tensioning springs 50 and the telescopic limiters adjusting the spring length 89 are fixed between them, one end of the stanchions 46, 47 is attached to the intersecting units 43 of constituent triangular cells of the upper concave mesh 40, and the other end is attached to the intersecting units of the constituent triangular cells of the lower concave mesh 41.
Additional flexible rods 88 stacked on the side of the reflector attachment to the elastic rods of the reflector fixing mesh 55 are located between the elastic mesh units and adjacent units.
To change the length between the lower and upper parts of the spatial gasket 51, additional gaskets 83 are placed to change the length of the spatial gaskets by changing their number.
The spatial shaped gasket 51 for changing the length between its lower and upper parts, screw holes 85 are arranged in its lower and upper parts, between which an axis 87 with thread of different directions is placed.
Flexible stanchions 92 for connecting the upper and lower meshes, which are passed through the hole 93 made at the intersection unit of the elastic rods of the lower convex mesh, are provided with latches 97, 98, 99 adjacent to holes, at both sides, for limiting the motion of the spring.
The telescopic limiter 100 attached to adjust the distance between the oriented units 11 of the upper and lower booms has an threaded adjusting rod 103 located on the inner tube 102 to adjust the length of the telescopic limiter and fix the reflector antenna in the designed state at the end of the process deployment.
A tube 70 that is disposed between the intermediate units 20 of the foldable rods and the central unit 6 of every section 3 of the deploying ring is fastened by means of a fastening means 68 disposed on the rotary axis 64 of the central unit 6 of every section 3 of the deploying ring, other ends of the tubes 70 at both sides reach the intermediate units 19 that connect the foldable rods of the foldable lower and upper booms of the tensioning frame of the deployable reflector antenna; caps 71 with locking means 72 are fastened on the ends of the tubes 70 for limiting the sliding by influence of the load-bearing cable led on the roller disposed at the end of the plates that connect the foldable upper and lower rods of the bearer disposed on the shaft of the cylindrical joint that connects the foldable upper and lower rods when the upper and lower booms are fully opened.
The gear-type synchronizers 13 are fixedly attached at the ends of the foldable upper and lower rods 14, 15, the teeth 72-2 of which abut to one another in the spatially oriented units 11 that connect the rods and are hingedly fastened in the sheet of the units 75 by rods, which has a console-like projection 76 directed towards the central units of the crosswise intersection of the pantograph levers, at the end of which rollers 77 for passing the load-bearing 27 are disposed, the unit 73 is provided with a bearer 78 that is capable of sliding on the tube 70, which is rigidly 80 fastened on the shaft of the central cylindrical unit with its medium point, and has caps 81 from the inside of the deploying ring and at the ends, with the bearer retaining mechanism 82 to retain the bearer in the fully opened state of the foldable upper and lower rods.
Two pairs of rollers 104 are fastened at both sides of the other ends of the tubes 70 that are fastened by units at the side of the upper and lower booms on the fastening means 68 disposed on the rotary shaft of the central unit 6 of every section 3 of the deploying ring 2, and the deploying load-bearing cable 27 is led on the rollers, other ends of the tubes 70 at both sides reach the axis of the roller 105 disposed above the cylindrical unit that connect the foldable lower and foldable upper rods of the tensioning frame of the deployable reflector, wherein the caps 71 with locking means 72 are fastened at the ends of tubes 70 to retain the bearer 71-1 disposed on the shaft of the cylindrical joint that connects the foldable upper and foldable lower rods when the upper and lower booms are fully opened, which is capable of moving by the influence of the deploying load-bearing cable 27 led on the roller 104 disposed at the end of the tube, passing the roller disposed on the cylindrical joint that connects the foldable upper and lower rods, than returning to the roller 105 disposed on the cylindrical joint and led on the neighbouring section.
The description of the invention is explained in the drawings, wherein:
The deployable reflector comprises a stretching frame 1 (
The reflector fixing mesh 55 with units 56 provided with springs that are disposed on the periphery together with the reflector 53, are also attached to the protrusion 36 of the units 11 oriented in the space of the lower boom 29 (
By means of a fastening means 68 disposed on the rotary axis 64 of the central unit 6 of each section 3 (
On the second ends of the foldable lower rods 14 and upper rods 15 of the tensioning frame 1 (
The gasket 51 having the spatial shape (
Additional elastic rods 88 are disposed at the side the units 52 of the elastic mesh 55 for fixing the reflector 53 (
In the inner space of the spring 50, located between the upper part 46 of the flexible stanchion and the lower part 47 of the flexible stanchion, there is a telescopic limiter 89 of over-stretching a spring 50, at the end units 90, 91 of which the upper end 48 of the spring and the lower end 49 of the spring (
The upper concave mesh 40 having triangular cells is connected with a continuous elastic tensioning stanchion 92 (
The reflecting mesh 53 is directly attached to the elastic rods 42 of the upper concave mesh 40 having triangular cells, and to the units 43 of their intersection wherein the elastic rod 92 is fastened. The elastic rod 92 is passed through a hole 93 made in the unit 45 of intersection of the elastic rods 44 of the lower convex mesh 41 having triangular cells. The second end of the elastic rod 92 is disposed on units 95 adjacent to the tensioning spring 94 (
A telescopic limiter 100 is attached for adjusting the distance between the upper boom 28 oriented unit 11 of the tensioning frame deploying ring 2 and the lower boom 29 oriented unit 11, the outer tube 101 (
By the fastening means 68 disposed on the rotary axis 64 of the central unit 6 of each section 3 (
Transition of the tensioning frame of the deployable reflector from its folding state to the deployed state is performed in the following manner.
Transition of the deploying ring 2 (
Together with the deploying ring 2, the central part of the tensioning frame of the reflector starts deploying, which is folded in the internal space of the folded deploying ring 2 (
When the process of deployment of the deploying ring 2 finishes, the springs 50 disposed between the elastic rods that connect the upper concave 40 and the lower convex 41 meshes, and the springs 56 disposed in the periphery of the reflecting mesh 53 and the reflector fixing mesh 55, stretch with predetermined forces, the central part of the reflector tensioning frame 1 is tensioned and assumes the designed shape. In case of deviation of the central part of the reflector tensioning frame 1 from the designed shape, the change of the spatial shape gasket 51 (
Unlike the first embodiment, a continuous tensioning stanchion 92 is possible (
The third embodiment is also possible, wherein the reflecting mesh 53 is directly fastened on the upper concave mesh 40 (
In the process of deployment of every section 3 (
In to process of deployment of every sections 3 of the third embodiment of the deploying ring 2 of the reflector deploying frame 1 (
In the process of deployment of every sections of the fourth embodiment of the deploying ring 2 of the reflector tensioning frame 1 (
In the still another fifth embodiment of the invention, by means of the fastening means 68 disposed on the rotary axis 64 of the central unit 6 of every section 3 (
In the description of the invention, a deployable reflector is provided that is used on spacecrafts as antennas. Due to its structural scheme, the deployable space reflector ensures reliability and simplicity of the reflector deployment, high rigidity, light weight, optimal shape of the transportation package, technical simplicity of the structure manufacturing, high accuracy of the geometrical shape of the reflector of the reflector antenna and repeatedly of the reflector surface shape after the repeated deployment of the structure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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AP 2021 15604 | Apr 2021 | GE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/GE2022/050002 | 4/14/2022 | WO |