Development of small satellite for X-Band compact synthetic aperture radar

Abstract

JAXA/ISAS, University of Tokyo, and Keio University have been developing an X-band compact synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system and carrying out satellite system design. Many SAR satellites are operating on orbit. Generally, weight of SAR satellites vary from three hundred to a few thousand kilograms. Compact SAR satellite has several issues. For example, high power management during mission operation, thermal management of high power amplifier, EMC related with high power consumption and target pointing with high accuracy. Considering above issues, we carried out system design of the X band compact SAR satellite and have obtained feasibility of the system. Engineering model or flight equivalent model of x band compact SAR equipment such as an antenna, a high power amplifier, a mission data recorder and a x band data transmitter have been developing and there characteristics are measured. Integration and testing of a demonstration satellite will start from the beginning of 2019 and first demonstration satellite will be launched within 2019.