In 2024, the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite will be launched into a near-polar Earth orbit using the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-II rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the south coast of India. . The satellite’s science payload will be integrated into its body for launch.
The science payloads of two radar systems for the NISAR Earth science mission, one built by ISRO and the other by NASA, have arrived in India. The two payloads arrived from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California to the Indian Space Agency’s UR Rao Satellite Center in Bangalore.
In March 2021, the S-band radar was built by ISRO and transported to JPL. For two years, JPL engineers devoted a significant amount of time to integrating the ISRO-supplied S-band radar with the JPL-built L-band system with the instrument, known as the science payload, followed by a series of experiments. Confirm their compatibility.
Once the compatibility test is confirmed, JPL engineers will export the science payload to India in a specially designed container in late February 2023 via a C-17 military transport aircraft that landed in Bangalore on March 6.
According to an official statement shared by JPL, for its three-year mission, facility teams will integrate the radar systems with the satellite’s body or bus and run it through a series of tests.
Financial Express Online earlier reported that this satellite will operate along the lines of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sentinel 1.
Also Read: Eyes in the sky: ISRO and NASA develop world’s first dual frequency radar – NISAR
About Nisa
ISRO is launching NISAR, which will deploy the most advanced radar system ever on a NASA science mission.
This satellite will observe almost all of Earth’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days. It will measure movement in very fine detail.
Objectives of NISAR
NISAR will focus closely on forest and agricultural areas, which will help scientists estimate the exchange of atmosphere with vegetation.
Mission NISAR was conceived by NASA and ISRO eight years ago, in 2014, as a powerful demonstration of radar’s capabilities as a science tool to help study Earth’s occupied land and ice surfaces in detail.
This will be the first satellite mission to use two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) in the science payload. It will measure changes in the planet’s surface in less than a centimeter.
NISAR’s science payload will be launched as part of the NASA science mission and will include the most advanced radar systems (L-band and S-band) ever launched.
The system will have the largest radar antenna of its type, approximately 40 feet (12 m) in diameter and drum-shaped with a wire mesh reflector. And the antenna will extend from a 30-foot (9-meter) boom, according to the official statement.
A dual-frequency imaging satellite capable of producing high-resolution images using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) capable of penetrating clouds can collect data day and night regardless of weather conditions.
With this implementation, we can effectively understand the flow rates between glaciers and ice sheets along with changes in earthquake and volcanic ranges.
Nisa’s science is about payloads
Science payloads combine S-band and L-band systems, which are embedded in satellites and sent into space. The NISAR science payload will fit into two synthetic aperture radar instruments:
24 cm wavelength L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (L-SAR) from NASA.
A 10-cm-wavelength S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (S-SAR) has been provided by ISRO.
NISAR has a 240 km swath, 7 m resolution along track and 2-8 m resolution cross-track (depending on mode).
In addition, NASA is providing several essential components for the project, including radar reflector antennas, deployable booms, a high-speed communications subsystem for scientific data, GPS receivers, a reliable solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystems.
With the S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is equipping spacecraft buses and launch vehicles and associated launch services and satellite mission activities.
