Abstract
NASA and the Air Force are currently jointly studying technologies and missions for large aperture space-borne radar systems that can satisfy the objectives of both agencies. Missions focus on elements of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise Strategic Plan and Air Force long term needs for airborne moving target indication. A possible design for a prototype system specifies a low center frequency such as L-band, a large physical aperture between 50 and 150 square meters, and on-board processing capability for Synthetic Aperture Radar and Moving Target Indication applications. Such a mission would provide technology validation and short term science return, and will lead to the next generation of Space-based Radar systems. The system incorporates active metrology for measurement of the shape of the aperture, and electronics and processing capability for active compensation of the aperture surface deformation. The goal of the mission is to demonstrate the ability to maintain coherence in a very large aperture in the space environment, to show scalability to larger apertures, and to demonstrate the ability to deliver fault-tolerant real-time products in space. The system will also permit characterization of spaceborne L-band AMTI phenomenology. This talk will describe some of the science and phenomenology that leads to the definition of system needs, and the hardware currently under development.