A typical ground installation for a localizer antenna array is 100 feet wide. And use for autoland roll-out suggests the signal can be used to within about 1000 feet of the antenna (or even closer).
Does anyone know if an array can be miniaturized to a few feet wide? And the signal used to within a few inches of the array? We are not limited to VHF freq's for the carrier nor 90/150 Hz for the modulation, so we can increase frequency to reduce wavelength and therefore size.
I ask because we are undertaking a school project to guide a spacecraft to an automatic docking collar, and this existing technology would be useful if we could overcome some engineering limitations (like control of the back-lobe radiation and interference of the spacecraft with the signal). But the signal must be useable until docking is imminent.
Thanks,
Neil J.
Does anyone know if an array can be miniaturized to a few feet wide? And the signal used to within a few inches of the array? We are not limited to VHF freq's for the carrier nor 90/150 Hz for the modulation, so we can increase frequency to reduce wavelength and therefore size.
I ask because we are undertaking a school project to guide a spacecraft to an automatic docking collar, and this existing technology would be useful if we could overcome some engineering limitations (like control of the back-lobe radiation and interference of the spacecraft with the signal). But the signal must be useable until docking is imminent.
Thanks,
Neil J.