Yesterday we did our first ever antenna deployment test and it worked on the first try (if you don’t count the accidentally plugging in the wrong cable at first). The antenna is literally a tape measure cut to a specific length that we tuned earlier this year at First RF, where we also used their anechoic chamber to characterize the gain pattern. The tape measure acts as a regular monopole antenna and has the added benefit of having its own spring force to deploy itself and stay rigid. Plus its cheap!
You’ll love Gregg Allison’s reaction to the deployment in this video. We had probably about 7 different video captures of this event as everyone in the lab pulled out their phones to capture this exciting milestone in the MinXSS CubeSat project.
Just click the link below to watch the video.