Surrey Satellite Technologies (SSTL) announced today that they will begin developing a low-cost Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite system. The medium resolution (6-30 m ground sample distance) NovaSar-S is being developed alongside SSTL’s parent company Astrium. The satellite platform (SSTL-300) will be an adaption of SSTL’s very-high-resolution imaging NigeriaSat-2 mission, which was launched in August.
The advantages of SAR are that it can take images regardless of cloud cover and also either day or night. The aim is to build the satellite for less than $50 million euros, a considerable savings based on prior platforms that have cost twice as much. Challenges in the past have revolved around data handling, because SAR generates 20 to 30 times more data than optical data processing systems.
SSTL is eying a constellation of three NovaSar-S satellites to be flown in constellation at equatorial or polar low-Earth orbits, because with this coverage they could image any point on the globe every day. The company indicates that they could deliver two complete NovaSAR-S satellites into orbit within the next 24 months.
