JAXA, and private companies Taiyo Wire Cloth, NGK Insulators, Technosolver Corporation, and Koyo Materica Corporation, have developed a metal mesh for onboard deployable reflectors.

The new metal mesh is made from zirconium copper wire and fabricated by tricot weaving. It is light weight, flexible, cheaper, and has excellent electrical reflection properties at the high frequency band of Ka (30 GHz).

The new mesh does not use precious and rare metals, which makes it more affordable. It is expected to be applied primarily to communications satellites and SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellites, both of which use deployable reflectors to improve satellite capabilities like communication speeds.

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