NovaSAR-S

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NovaSAR-S
Type: Earth observation satellite
Mission dates
Dimensions: 430 kg
Size: a × b × cm
Begin: September 16, 2018 at 16:37 UTC
Starting place: Satish Dhawan Space Center
Launcher: PSLV
Orbit data
Track height: 583 km

NovaSAR-S is a UK earth observation and technology testing satellite.

It was launched into sun-synchronous orbit on September 16, 2018 at 16:37 UTC with a PSLV launcher from the Satish Dhawan Space Center (along with SSTL S1-4).

The three-axis stabilized satellite is equipped with a side-view radar with a resolution of 6 to 30 m and is intended to serve disaster control, agriculture and forestry and the detection and tracking of ships. It was built on the basis of the SSTL-300 satellite bus from Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) together with EADS Astrium and has a planned service life of 7 years. The British government supported the project with £ 21 million.

To control and monitor the satellite, communication takes place in the S band (2025-2110 MHz, 2200-2290 MHz). The user data is transmitted to earth in the X-band (8.025-8.4 GHz) at a data rate of 500 Mbit / s. A memory of 544 GByte is available on board the satellite for the intermediate storage of the data. The radar works in the S-band (3.1-3.3 GHz). The antenna is designed as a microstrip patch phased array approximately 3 × 1 m in size with 18 pairs of subfields, each with 100 watts transmission power. The antenna size was deliberately limited in order to limit the size of the satellite and thus meet the requirements for inexpensive launch vehicles.

The radar can transmit and receive in both horizontal and vertical polarization . This allows images to be generated in different polarizations and mixed images of different polarizations (HH, VV, HV & VH). The swath width is between 15 and 20 km (6 m resolution), 150 km (30 m resolution in SAR mode) up to 750 km (30 m resolution for ship surveillance) depending on the angle to the vertical.

An AIS receiver is on board as a secondary payload .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b NASASpaceFlight: Indian PSLV launches two British satellites , accessed on October 9, 2018
  2. a b c d Satellite Missions: NovaSAR-S - eoPortal Directory - Satellite Missions , accessed on October 9, 2018
  3. europa.eu: European Commission - PRESS RELEASES - Press release - State aid: Commission approves GBP 21 million for the development of an inexpensive radar satellite by British manufacturer SSTL , accessed on October 9, 2018
  4. Satellite Missions: NovaSAR-S - eoPortal Directory - Satellite Missions , accessed on October 9, 2018