Compact side-fed dual reflector antenna system for providing adjacent, high gain antenna beams

An antenna system for use on a spacecraft comprising:

• a main reflector;
• a subreflector;
• and,
• a feed array comprised of a plurality of separate feeds arranged in a preselected configuration so that the feeds are aligned along a predetermined contour, said feed array, subreflector and main reflector oriented to define a side-fed dual reflector antenna geometry wherein said feed array is to a side of both said main reflector and said subreflector, each feed provides a separate illumination beam, the feed array is coupled to a feed network which acts to combine the illumination beams of clusters of a preselected number of feeds to produce a single composite illumination beam from each cluster,
• each composite illumination beam has a central ray which is directed to be incident upon a separate preselected location on said subreflector,
• the subreflector is configured to receive each composite illumination beam at said predetermined location on said subreflector and direct each said composite illumination beam towards said main reflector,
• the main reflector is positioned to receive each composite illumination beam from the subreflector and direct each composite illumination beam in a predetermined direction so that each composite illumination beam forms an antenna beam that impinges a predetermined coverage area on the Earth and each antenna beam defines a separate coverage cell in the coverage area, wherein the position and orientation of the feeds, the subreflector and the main reflector provides antenna beams within a preselected coverage area.