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X-Band Acquisition Aid Antenna for Ground Stations Application

Josef Migl *, Christian Hoetzel *, Christian Hartwanger *, UnPyo Hong *, Detlef Heuer * Filippo Concaro**, Maite Arza***, Piermario Besso ***
* Astrium GmbH 81663 Munich, Germany, Josef.Migl@astrium.eads.net ** SERCO Consultant for ESOC *** ESOC Robert Bosch-Str. 5, 62293 Darmstadt, Germany, Filippo.Concaro@esa.int
Abstract This paper describes the design and operational validation of the X-Band acquisition aid system (XAA) installed and used in the ESTRACK LEOP network. The purpose of this acquisition aid antenna is to provide a wider X-band beam than the 15m main antenna during the first critical acquisition phase after orbit injection. The paper describes the design and performances of the most important components as well as of the complete antenna. An XAA prototype was manufactured and installed within the ESA ground station in Perth, Western Australia. Operational validation of the system has been successfully achieved in the frame of the Herschel-Plank LEOP campaign in May 2009. A second XAA antenna was installed in 2009 in Kourou (French Guyana) and a third one will be deployed in Maspalomas (Canary Islands) in 2010. These three terminals will provide the core support to the Lisa Pathfinder LEOP.

I. INTRODUCTION Ground station antennas for satellites operating in X-band use large reflectors. A typical main reflector has a diameter of approximately 400 wavelengths (15m). This large reflector aperture provides high gain, which is required for high speed data transmission, and consequently a very narrow beam. The automatic tracking system implemented in such an antenna permits to follow the spacecraft trajectory with a very high accuracy (tracking error in the order of 30 millidegree). However, because of the narrow beam, the tracking range is limited to about 0.14 degree. This is sufficient in case of nominal operations, when the antenna tracks low orbit satellites in a stable and well defined orbit. In this scenario the orbital predictions are accurate enough to point the antenna in program track to the target with an error much smaller than the tracking range. However, during the critical launch and early orbit phase (LEOP) the orbital predictions cannot be so accurate due to the high uncertainty about the spacecraft position (launcher dispersion area). This limits the program track accuracy and the elevated angular speed after launch makes it difficult to keep the satellite within the quite narrow beam of the large reflector antenna. This was still achievable

when the LEOP support was carried out in S-Band (2200 to 2300 MHz). The transition from S-Band to X-Band (8025 to 8500 MHz) for space science communications narrows the size of the antenna beam by a factor of four, making the antenna tracking range too small compared to the dispersion area (compare Figure 1). Under such circumstances it is then essential to use an antenna with a smaller diameter and hence a wider beam to achieve a quick and reliable acquisition [1]. After successful acquisition with this X-Band Acquisition Aid antenna (XAA) the large reflector antenna shall however take over the satellite tracking to ensure better tracking accuracy and higher data rates. The key system requirements for the XAA were therefore: Tracking Range 2deg (see Figure 1) Frequency Range: 8025 8500MHz RHC and LHC polarizations simultaneously G/T 14.5dB/K @ EL=5deg over the full band Max modulation loss: 15 dB Min. supported power flux density = -150dBW/m2
1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 Elevation pointing Error (deg) 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 -0.1 -0.2 -0.3 -0.4 -0.5 -0.6 -0.7 -0.8 -0.9 -1.0 -1.1 -1.1 -1.0 -0.9 -0.8 -0.7 -0.6 -0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 Cross-Elevation Pointing Error (de g)

Within 15m tracking range (8.1%) Within XAA Tracking Range (99.8%) Outside XAA tracking range (0.2%)

Figure 1: Lisa Pathfinder estimated 3 dispersion at Perth station

To allow a smooth handover from the XAA to the main antenna, they have share to the same mechanical control system. The XAA must hence additionally fulfil the same mechanical and environmental requirements as the main antenna. This means that the antenna assembly must for example withstand wind loads up to 200km/h and the sometimes stringent temperature constraints of the sites. II. ANTENNA DESIGN In order to minimize the influence of the acquisition aid antenna on the main antenna it was decided to place it next to the rim of the main dish. The exact position was chosen as a compromise between size/mass of the construction, minimum coupling between the two antennas and minimum diffraction effects. The acquisition aid antenna is a centre-fed Cassegrain system. These antennas are widely used for ground station terminals because of its symmetrical phase behaviour, mechanical requirements and low noise temperature. The main disadvantages of using centre-fed antennas are the blockage provided by the subreflector and the back radiation from the subreflector into the feed system. Both effects can be minimised by careful selection of the antenna geometry and by means of reflector shaping. In order to achieve the strict requirements in terms of G/T performances for the XAA, shaping of both the main and the subreflector was necessary. RF design of large reflector antennas is commonly performed using Physical Optics (PO) analysis. In case that the influence of the subreflector on the horn performance can not be neglected a co-simulation of PO and a 3D field solver can be a powerful tool [2]. For the design of the XAA antenna an Astrium in-house program was used that combines modematching for the inner contour of the feed horn and method of moments for the outer contour and the other antenna elements. For the XAA antenna a diameter of 1.30m for the main reflector and 0.35m for the sub reflector was chosen as best compromise to fulfil the G/T and tracking range requirements. A tracking range of about 2 degrees was achieved with this reflector size. Figure 2 shows the XAA antenna mounted to the mechanical supporting structure during the factory tests in the Compact Range Test Facility of Astrium GmbH in Munich.

III. FEED CHAIN DESIGN Amplitude and direction of the angular signal displacement from the boresight direction are calculated from the comparison between the so-called sum and delta signals in a monopulse tracking system. The sum signal is obtained from the fundamental propagation mode of the waveguide system (TE11 in this case), while the delta signal is obtained from a specific high order mode (TE21), which presents the required field distribution. The feed chain of the XAA antenna consists of a corrugated horn, a TE21 tracking mode coupler, extracting the delta signals and a septum polariser providing the sum signals. The delta signals from the mode coupler output are combined using a 90-hybrid in order to get right-hand circular polarisation (RHC) and left-hand circular polarisation (LHC) signals. Both polarisations are simultaneously received for the sum and the delta chains and can be selected by waveguide switches. In this way full redundancy is provided. The feed chain also contains band filters to isolate the desired frequencies from interferences. The corrugated horn design combines high efficiency with reduced cross polarisation and low side lobes. It is precisely matched for both TE11 and TE21 modes. Figure 3 demonstrates the calculated (Mode-Matching) performance of the XAA feed with the outstanding cross-polar behaviour.
XAA Feed Pattern Frequency: 8450 MHz max. Directivity.: 18.69 dBi / max. X-Po.: -44.80 dB 0 Mag. Mag. Mag. Mag. E-Plane, Co-Pol H-Plane, Co-Pol 45deg Plane, Co-Pol 45deg Plane, X-Pol

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Figure 3: XAA Feed Performance (Mode Matching Calculation)

Figure 2: XAA Antenna in the Compact Range Test Facility

The beam width is optimised for the geometry of the XAA antenna. The tracking mode coupler extracts both orthogonal TE21 modes of the circular waveguide by means of its multihole structure. Excellent decoupling between sum and delta signal is achieved in order to fulfil the requirements on the tracking error. Figure 4 depicts the corrugated horn (white) including the double layer feed window (grey) and the connected tracking coupler (yellow chromate). The septum polariser provides the circular polarisation for the sum signals. The septum polariser has two rectangular waveguide ports, one for the left-hand circular polarised and one for the right-hand polarised signal and a square common port. The common port is connected to the tracking mode coupler via a square-to-circular transition. The septum polariser is designed for an optimum matching of the

fundamental modes, a high isolation between the LHC and RHC ports and a very low axial ratio.

set according to the received polarization or manually controlled by the operator via a remote monitoring and control computer. Figure 6 depicts the inside view of the RF front-end cabinet.

Figure 4: X-Band Horn and Tracking Coupler

Figure 5 shows the polarizer with the 180 deg waveguide bends required to connect it to the following waveguide switch.

Figure 6: View inside the XAA Outdoor Cabinet

Figure 5: XAA Septum Polarizer with Waveguide Bends

IV. SYSTEM DESIGN The first of three XAA antennas was installed at the rim of the ESTRACK 15m antenna located in Perth, Western Australia in 2008. The second XAA antenna was installed in Kourou, French Guyana in 2009. The boresight of the small XAA antennas were co-aligned to the boresight direction of the large ones. The complete RF front-end (including Filter, Test Coupler, Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) and Downconverter) is installed direct behind the XAA antenna inside a sealed and temperature-controlled outdoor cabinet (Figure 6). From there the RF equipment is connected to the tracking receiver installed in the basement of the 15m antenna. The design of the RF front-end consists of a four channel waveguide chain from the feed to the low noise amplifiers (LNAs), i.e. two chains for the sum-modes (RHC, LHC) and two chains for the delta modes. This combination provides a complete front-end redundancy. The waveguide and coax switches layout provides the flexibility to select the appropriate routing. The signal routing can be automatically

The coaxial output of the low noise amplifiers are connected with short phase stabilized coax cables to the downconverter, which is installed close to the amplifiers. The three channel converter delivers the 70 MHz tracking signal at the output ports. The selected low noise amplifiers provide a noise temperature contribution of about 47 K and the measured system noise over the operational bandwidth is better than 180K for both polarizations at 5deg Elevation. The challenging G/T figure of 14.5dB/K could be achieved over the complete operational bandwidth of 475MHz due to the short distances and the outstanding equipment performance. An installed small dipole antenna at the subreflector and/or waveguide test couplers in front of the LNAs can be used to inject a test signal into the XAA system and test the system independently from external beacon signals. The dehydrator system of the large antenna supplies the feed and all waveguide chains with dry air.

Figure 7: XAA Antenna Installation in Perth with RF Outdoor Cabinet

The interface between the XAA antenna system and 15m tracking systems is at the Antenna Control Unit (ACU). This unit is in charge of the control of the antenna SERVO system. The ACU simultaneously receives the tracking error voltages (carrying the information about the antenna mispointing to the target) from the 15m and the XAA tracking receivers respectively. The switch-over from one system to the other is manually commanded by the operator in remote through the Front End Controller (FEC) or the Station Computer (STC) monitoring systems. V. MEASUREMENT RESULTS The tests performed both at the Perth as well as at the Kourou stations have demonstrated that the XAA system G/T meets the stringent requirement of 14.5 dB/K over the full operating band at an antenna elevation of 5 even with cloudy sky conditions. Figure 8 shows a comparison between the measurements in Perth, where the weather conditions at the time of the test campaign were favourable and in Kourou, where the weather was cloudy/rainy.
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 8000 8100 8200 8300 8400 8500

Figure 10 presents the measurements of the tracking sensitivity of the XAA system. The relation between Error Voltage module and angular misalignment is sufficiently linear up to the maximum specified offset of 1 deg and even beyond. The fact that the XAA is able to acquire at angular offsets greater than 1 deg (thus meeting the specification of an overall tracking range 2 deg) has been furthermore demonstrated with tests on both a fixed target and flying spacecrafts.
Tracking Output Sensitivity PER, X-Band , Pol=RHC, Freq.=8945MHz, AZ-Cut Boresight Position: AZ/deg=203.0594 EL/deg= 0.8211 Slope= -4.7 V/deg 10 8 6 Tracking Error Voltage Dx /V 4 2 0 -2 -4 -6 -8 -10 -2 -1.5 -1 Tracking Error Signal Tracking Range Spec

-0.5 0 0.5 Azimuth Boresight Offset /deg

1.5

dB/K

Figure 10: AZ-Cut, 8495 MHz, RHC, XAA Tracking Sensitivity

Frequency [MHz] Perth - clear sky Kourou - cloudy sky Specification

Figure 8: XAA G/T at 5 Elevation

The measured tracking pattern of Figure 9 shows at 8495 MHz the expected relation of the Sum vs. the Delta Pattern and the required null depths of the delta pattern of >35 dB (w.r.t. Sum peak). The half power beam width (HPBW) is 1.47deg for that frequency.
PER, XAA-Band , Pol=RHC, Freq.=8495MHz, AZ-Cut Sum @-3dB:-0.73 deg, 0.74deg, HPBW=1.470 deg Sum Max=0.01 deg, Delta Null= 0.02 deg, Shift=-0.0138 deg 0

In the frame of the on-site test activities it has also been verified that the XAA system can acquire a signal with a power flux density down to -165 dBW/m2 (corresponding to the specified -150 dBW/m2 plus an additional 15 dB of modulation loss) using a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) bandwidth of 1000 Hz. This achievement is important, since it has been calculated [1] that for the worst case scenario of Lisa Pathfinder LEOP the Doppler rate will request a PLL bandwidth of 380 Hz. The results of the on-site test campaigns demonstrate therefore that the XAA system does not only meet all the specifications, but does it even if all the worst case scenarios conditions are occurring simultaneously. VI. OPERATIONAL VALIDATION There are several operational scenarios in which signal acquisition is problematic; the first acquisition of the satellite downlink signal after orbit injection is one of those presenting the major risk and criticality. The strategy applied at ESOC for all past missions so far has been the spiral search. During this search, the front-end controller (FEC) commands the antenna to follow a spiral pattern superimposed on the satellite pointing predictions. The received power level is recorded during the movement, allowing for the detection of the satellite. At the end of the search, the antenna follows the target in autonomous autotrack and the available pointing predictions are corrected by the FEC with pointing offset corrections. In the case of X-Band the time required to cover the same search area increases significantly, since the antenna beamwidth becomes four times smaller than in S-Band. In certain operational scenarios, such as short satellite visibility

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Figure 9: AZ-Cut, 8495 MHz, RHC, XAA Tracking Pattern

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Figure 11 - Comparison of Signal level at 15m and XAA Tracking receivers during Plank Acquisition: antenna positioning through program track, unsuccessful autotrack attempt with 15m system, re-positioning in Programtrack, successful autotrack attempt with XAA system, hand-over to 15 m.

periods or critical operations and in particular for large dispersion areas, it can be unacceptable. The XAA introduces a valuable functionality and aid for X-Band downlink acquisition and autonomous tracking in contingency scenarios. Key features are the wider acquisition area of +/- 1deg, which allows for substantially shorter acquisition times, below 10 seconds, without execution of a spiral search. Furthermore, the wider acquisition area allows a more efficient use of the spiral search functionality by extending the scanned area and reducing the scanning time. The first ESA satellites exclusively using X-band are Herschel and Plank. The combined launch through Ariane 5 rocket took place from ESAs Spaceport in Kourou on the 14th of May 2009. The first signal acquisition was performed from Perth station, providing main TT&C support for Planck. Perth SERVO system was pre-configured to both the 15 m and XAA tracking systems, with the 15 m tracking system as master client for the antenna pointing. The expected 3-sigma antenna dispersion was in the order of 0.1 degree for first acquisition. Although localization of the satellite was possible with the 15 m antenna, the offset from nominal orbit was such that the 15m antenna tracking receiver locked on a side lobe and stable autotrack could therefore not be achieved. Instead, due to its much wider beamwidth the XAA system was properly locking. After verification of the XAA tracking receiver lock status and strength of the received signal on the remote M&C system, XAA was selected as prime SERVO client. Autonomous autotrack of the Planck downlink was then initiated with the XAA system, which inherently drove the 15 m antenna to the target, and allowed for the correction of the pointing

predictions (along and cross-track correction offsets) The switch-over to the 15 m tracking system was executed as soon as stable autotrack was achieved by its tracking system. Figure 11 provides an overview of the first acquisition sequence. VII. CONCLUSION An X-band acquisition aid antenna for satellite ground stations has been designed, manufactured and installed in the ESA ground stations in Perth, Australia and Kourou, French Guyana. The XAA antennas allow a safer and faster acquisition of satellites during the critical launch and early orbit phase. The XAA system in Perth has been successfully validated in the frame of the Herschel Plank launch campaign 2009. With the final installation of the third XAA antenna system in Maspalomas (Canary Islands) in 2010 the supporting ESTRACK network will be ready for the Lisa Pathfinder LEOP mission. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Astrium GmbH is indebted to the European Space Operation Center (ESOC) for funding the design and delivery of this X-Band Acquisition Aid Tracking Antenna for the ESTRACK ground station antenna network. REFERENCES
[1] [2] P. Maldari, W. Hell and A. Boutonnet, Extending LEOP Operations to X-Band: the LISA Pathfinder example, SpaceOps2006, Rome, Italy M. J. Schneider and R. W. Robert, Co-simulation with CST Microwave Studio and TICRA GRASP, 23rd Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics, Verona, Italy, 2007, pp. 778-781.

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