Antenna

The antenna asset represents mounted RF hardware with a radiation pattern model. It inherits parent pose, mounting, and pointing behaviour, then adds gain evaluation in the antenna local frame.

Role in ASTROLAB

Workflow	Antenna role
Link budget	Provides TX/RX antenna gain and boresight gain.
Link geometry	Provides directional gain from local line-of-sight direction.
RF inspection	Samples azimuth/elevation gain cuts and gain grids.
Mounted hardware	Can be attached to spacecraft, facilities, vehicles, or other compatible parents.

RF Convention

Concept	Convention
Local boresight	+Z
theta	Off-boresight angle from +Z.
phi	Azimuth in local XY plane.
Gain scale	Computed internally in linear scale; exposed in linear or dB.

Radiation Pattern Flow

flowchart TD
    A["AntennaAsset"] --> P["Radiation pattern key"]
    A --> R["Radiation params"]
    P --> F["RadiationPatternFactory"]
    R --> F
    F --> M["Pattern model"]
    M --> G["Gain(theta, phi)"]

Main Parameters

Field	Meaning
radiation_pattern_key	Pattern identifier.
radiation_params	Pattern-specific parameters.
role	tx, rx, or txrx.
parent_guid	Parent asset GUID.
mounting	Nominal antenna orientation.
attitude_mode	Dynamic pointing mode.

Supported Pattern Families

Pattern	Description
Isotropic	Equal gain in all directions.
Dipole	Analytical dipole shape.
Gaussian	Gaussian main-lobe pattern.
Cosine Aperture Circular	Cosine aperture approximation.
Parabolic Reflector	Aperture-style reflector model.