Astrium Continues Development of Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar

SPACEWAR

The MicroSAR Airborne Demonstrator has completed a series of successful trials mounted on a DSTL Britten-Norman Islander aircraft.

Munich - Nov 27, 2003
EADS Astrium has successfully developed an Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), called the MicroSAR Airborne Demonstrator, which can be applied to both spaceborne and airborne SAR systems, including the spaceborne MicroSAR system and the airborne QuaSAR system. This technology is a major breakthrough in low cost SAR systems.

Funded by BNSC, the MicroSAR Airborne Demonstrator has completed a series of successful trials mounted on a DSTL Britten-Norman Islander aircraft. Operating between 3000 and 7000ft over Portsmouth and the surrounding area, the trials generated high quality X-band imagery through cloud. The Airborne Demonstrator instrument, which is only 75cm high and weighs only 49kg, is able to provide image resolution down to 1m, both day and night, and in all weather conditions.

Dr Mike Healy, Director of Earth Observation, Navigation, and Science UK said, "We are delighted with the success of the MicroSAR Airborne Demonstrator project, which has been achieved despite demanding technical and cost requirements.

The entire demonstrator programme including design, procurement, manufacture, build, test, integration, verification, and flight trials were completed inside the original 18 month schedule. We are pleased to announce that BNSC has extended its financial support to aid the further development and exploitation of the system."

At the heart of the instrument is the generic CORE Radar Central Electronics developed by EADS Astrium. This can be adapted to a wide range of Radar frequencies and is suitable for both space and airborne platforms, including UAVs.

A C-band system is currently being built by EADS Astrium for the Canadian SAR satellite, Radarsat 2. In addition to the central electronics, the airborne demonstrator includes an innovative, very low cost, active phased array antenna and an inertial measurement unit to measure and record the aircraft motion. Thus allowing motion compensation in the image processing.

SPACEWAR

Raytheon Awarded $37.4 Million For Space-Based Radar Development

El Segundo - Oct 22, 2003
Raytheon Company has been awarded a $37.4 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to define, analyze, design and demonstrate a Space-Based Radar (SBR) pre-prototype payload consisting of an electronic scanned array and an on-board processing component.

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.