(C13) Mounting of the top antennas

The antenna's on top of MSG have to be mounted during the launch campaign otherwise the size of the container to transport the spacecraft would not fit in the Antonov, the plane used to bring the spacecraft from Europe to French Guiana. The single element  shown on the picture is in fact composed of two antenna's: The TT&C antenna and the Toroïdal Pattern Antenna (TPA). The tip is the TT&C antenna (S-Band) used to receive TeleCommands (TC) from the ground ant to transmit satellite TeleMetry (TM) to the ground. The large cylinder below is the Toroïdal Pattern Antenna (TPA). It is normally used to receive the processed images and the meteorological products by the ground segment for the retransmission of the users. In case of failure of the main raw data transmission antenna (L-Band EDA), it can also be used to transmit to the ground the raw data from SEVIRI and GERB.

 

TPA before mounting on MSG

This antenna has to be mounted on the top of the Spacecraft (on the picture below, in the center of the black circular area as the spacecraft is in horizontal position). At the moment, a  protective cover in plexiglass is in place to protect the the very fragile UHF antennas located all around the Main Communication Platform (MCP).

 A front view of the main Communication Platform (MCP); MSG-4 in horizontal position,

A Thales technician is busy to perform the mechanical and electrical connections of the antenna with the support of another colleague responsible of the quality control. The access behind the antenna is not so easy and required a lot of attention and skills.

Max and David during assembling and integration activities

On Saturday 23/05 the integration of the TPA on MSG-4 was successfully completed.

Overall View of th MSG-4 with the TPA

The RF mast that has been shown in previous messages will now be used to perform a series of communication tests.  For more information on MSG communinication , click here.