Viasat's New Large-Aperture Space-to-Ground Communication Antennas Ready to Support Lunar, Cislunar, Deep Space and DoD Missions

January 20, 2022

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Viasat Inc., a global communications company, today announced the availability of its most advanced class of large-aperture antennas, which will be capable of providing the United States and other spacefaring nations with enhanced space-to-ground communications for upcoming Earth observation missions, manned and unmanned missions to the Moon, Mars and other deep space and Department of Defense (DoD) initiatives.

The new class of full-motion multi-band antennas, which range from 19.7 to 24.0 meters in diameter, offer revolutionary capability enhancements when compared to other legacy solutions that still use decades old technology. Viasat's key antenna enhancements include:

• Full-motion high-dynamic pedestal with precise tracking that will support current and future multi-orbit missions from low earth orbit (LEO) to Lunar and beyond;
• An integrated radio frequency (RF) architecture paired with precision reflector surface accuracy to enable enhanced operation from L-band to above Ka-band;
• Robust suite of software leveraging 20 years of delivering the highest levels of cyber security standards;
• RF designs that support use of extremely high-power amplifiers in multiple bands enabling advanced mission requirements; and
• Advanced high-rate modems that will support emerging industry standard interfaces and software defined radio (SDR) frameworks to enable future virtualized architectures.

"There is tremendous interest in earth observation, defense-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and deep space/lunar link communications, which our latest class of full-motion large-aperture antennas were built for," said Kent Leka, vice president and general manager, Antenna Systems, Viasat. "In fact, it only requires a handful of Viasat's large-aperture antennas strategically positioned around the globe to provide constant connectivity, which could bring increased visibility to global space and defense agencies as well as to Ground Station-as-a-Service providers looking to deploy a network of antennas that support upcoming missions with lunar direct-to-earth service and cislunar relay for future missions to the Moon and even Mars."

Source : ViaSat, Inc.