The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
A 5 m-diameter antenna reflector, designed for orbital operations. This reflector has a ‘double pantograph’ design to form a deployable ring. Once deployed, it tensions two opposing but connected parabolic nets, one on the top and one on the bottom. The top netting supports and maintains a very finely knitted metallic mesh in a predefined shape.
This reflector was developed in an activity addressing a full large deployable antenna system through ESA’s Basic Technology Research Programme (TRP), by a consortium led by HPS GmbH in Germany, responsible for the antenna subsystem engineering and the mesh development, with Germany’s Large Space Structures GmbH as main subcontractor, responsible for the whole reflector engineering, assembly and its deployment. “Different companies and European countries joining forces in combination with ESA’s programmatic approach have resulted in an excellent technology development,” comments Ernst K. Pfeiffer of HPS GmbH.