Comsat Antenna

Abstract

The antenna shown is the new, multiple-beam, Unattended Earth Terminal, located at COMSAT Laboratories in Clarksburg, Maryland. Seemingly simple, it is actually a complex structure capable of maintaining contact with several satellites simultaneously (conventional Earth station antennas communicate with only one satellite at a time). In developing the antenna, COMSAT Laboratories used NASTRAN, NASA's structural analysis computer program, together with BANDIT, a companion program. The computer programs were used to model several structural configurations and determine the most suitable, The speed and accuracy of the computerized design analysis afforded appreciable savings in time and money.