Radar absorbing materials for Cube Stealth Satellite

A Cube Stealth Satellite is proposed for potential applications in defense system. Particularly, the faces of the satellite exposed to the Earth are made of nanostructured materials able to absorb radar surveillance electromagnetic waves, conferring stealth capability to the cube satellite. Microwave absorbing and shielding material tiles are proposed using composite materials consisting in epoxy-resin and carbon nanotubes filler. The electric permittivity of the composite nanostructured materials is measured and discussed. Such data are used by the modeling algorithm to design the microwave absorbing and the shielding faces of the cube satellite. The electromagnetic modeling takes into account for several incidence angles (0-80°), extended frequency band (2-18 GHz), and for the minimization of the electromagnetic reflection coefficient. The evolutionary algorithm used for microwave layered microwave absorber modeling is the recently developed Winning Particle Optimization. The mathematical model of the absorbing structure is finally experimentally validated by comparing the electromagnetic simulation to the measurement of the manufactured radar absorber tile. Nanostructured composite materials manufacturing process and electromagnetic reflection measurements methods are described. Finally, a finite element method analysis of the electromagnetic scattering by cube stealth satellite is performed.