HPS GmbH signed in the first quarter 2021 as prime contractor a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) concerning the development of a European reflective mesh for large deployable antenna reflectors, suitable for frequency bands for Ka-band up to V-band (25 to 50 GHz). The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a breadboard of an RF reflective mesh suitable for deployable antenna reflectors with 5 to 8 meter in diameter. This development activity organized within the ARTES (Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems) program of ESA and is implemented in response to the ever increasing needs for bandwidth, mainly stemming from the telecommunication domain.

Following the Kick-off meeting of HPS GmbH as the prime contractor with the customer, the contract between HPtex GmbH as the expert for mesh development processes and HPS GmbH as the prime contractor was signed on 13th April 2021. HPtex GmbH is responsible for all production related activities. As part of this activity, an end-to-end manufacturing process will be developed and a batch of different mesh samples will be designed, manufactured and experimentally characterized. The most promising mesh will then be selected and a full-size mesh, suitable for a large reflector, will be manufactured and tested. HPtex GmbH is covering knitting and production technology aspects reflecting the state-of-the-art, as well as the manufacturing of reflective mesh itself.

The contract of HPtex GmbH comprises the delivery of a number of test samples and also the full reflector size mesh. The contract of HPtex GmbH has a planned duration of 2 years.