Hardware developments for the German SmartSAR program

The biggest German project is the X-band SAR demonstrator technology (DESA) which started in fall 1996 and will be finished 2000. Other projects in this area are the pre qualification of aperture coupled microstrip patch radiators, highly efficient Hetero Bipolar Transistors (HBT), DSPs for digital processing, and on-board SAR processing data reduction technologies. These are key technologies for the SmartSAR concept which could be realized within TerraSAR-proposed to ESA for the Earth Watch program-or as contribution to the LightSAR (NASA). The main technology developments for SmartSAR together with a short summary of the SmartSAR mission objectives are shown in the present paper. The SmartSAR initiative has been started in Germany to define an commercial SAR mission in the time frame 2003 and beyond. The considered systems, either X-band or a combination of X-band and L-band, aim at a market driven system realization. First assessments show that a very flexible system design is needed to cope with the market needs. In particular a spatial resolution of 3m or less seems to be mandatory. In preparation for these mission requirements, Dornier Satellite Systems (DSS) continues several technology developments. These together with respective developments at candidate industrial partners are the kernel for the future SAR instrument.