Saturday 23 February 2019 marks the 20 years anniversary for the successful launch of the first Danish satellite Ørsted; the satellite is named after Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted who in 1820 discovered electromagnetism.
The Ørsted satellite has served the scientific purpose of mapping the Earth’s magnetic field. For the radio communication with the ground station, DTU Elektro’s Electromagnetic Systems group developed the on-board satellite antenna which is a 2.15 GHz circularly polarized turnstile antenna located close to the corner of the Earth-facing side of the satellite.
A particular challenge for this is the scattering from the satellite structure which may hamper the radiation from the antenna itself; the antenna development thus necessitated careful simulations of this effect and accurate experimental testing in the DTU-ESA Spherical Near-Field Antenna Test Facility to ensure a correct radiation pattern.
For more information, please contact professor Olav Breinbjerg.
Photo: Ørsted RF-model being prepared for measurement in DTU-ESA Facility.
Photo: Ørsted satellite in assembly; the gold plated turnstile antenna is mounted in top corner.