Evolution, features, and prospects of materials science innovations in the development of space communication systems: A short survey

Since the launch of the first artificial satellites of the Earth, significant changes in the space communication engineering have taken place over the years. The paper considers a brief history of shapes of onboard space antennas and antenna materials. In the literature, there are only scattered data on the materials of space antennas that do not pretend to generalize and do not convey the reasons and results of the evolution of space antenna designs in relation to the materials used. A number of examples are based on Soviet and Russian experience, which is less well known to foreign readers and little covered in foreign literature. The paper focuses on the use of composite materials in reflectors of onboard high-gain antennas with a solid non-deployable surface. The paper presents the results of selecting a thin-walled CFRP shell reflector structures with a ribbed convex surface, which is rational in terms of mass and shape stability.