PanelSAR: A Smallsat Radar Instrument

This paper presents the background, capabilities and opportunities of a smallsat miniSAR, a novel and low-cost solution for Synthetic Aperture Radar from space. The paper focuses on a solution based on low power SAR principles (FMCW/iFMCW), already proven in airborne SAR applications, that can be embarked on a commercially affordable small satellite. The system architecture is presented, showing how features such as modularity, reliability, low power and low mass are achieved to provide a low-cost end-to-end solution. Also the “new space” approach adopted in the development of the smallsat miniSAR is addressed