Abstract
This paper presents the optimum design configuration for a pair of deployable dipole antennas for Pakistan National Student Satellite (PNSS-1) which is a 50 kg, 3- axis stabilized satellite targeted for imaging applications. The proposed antenna configuration consists of a pair of dipoles mounted on a 50 cm x 50 cm satellite body and they operate at 435 MHz and 146 MHz. The objective of this study is to maintain a return loss of -10 dB or below and simultaneously ensuring that the gain does not fall below a lower bound because that would be insufficient for the communication data rate of 9600 bps. By varying the antenna placement and orientation on the satellite body, these requirements were achieved. Simulated results show that despite different gain patterns the return loss remains below -10 dB.