Preliminary assessments by both government and industry indicate that applications exist in the areas of communications, radio astronomy, and Earth observations requiring large, space based antennas. The mesh deployable antenna, based on its demonstrated success in the smaller aperture range, provides a promising near term capability for satisfying a significant number of these space-based applications. In this article the technology status of mesh deployable antennas is reviewed and design concepts applicable to very large mesh deployable reflectors are discussed. The present state-of-the-art performance is presented along with projections of potential performance improvement. These are compared with identified focus missions from the NASA Large Space Structures Technology (LSST) Program
