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Plenary Session I
09:00 Plenary talk: Large Aperture Metasurface Antennas to Enable Rapid-Revisit, Satellite-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar
David R. Smith (1), Michael Boyarsky (1), Milton Perque (2), Tom Driscoll (3), Russell Hannigan (4)
(1)Duke University (USA) , (2)Metacept Corporation (USA) , (3)Echodyne Corporation (USA) , (4)Xplore Corporation (USA)
We present the case for waveguide-fed, metasurface apertures as spaceborne antennas for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging. Remote surveillance of earth has gained increasing relevance, both for military as well as commercial purposes. Low- and mid-frequency microwaves have the advantage of penetrating clouds and possibly other obstructions, enabling the capability to persistently monitor terrestrial targets. However, widescale coverage over large portions of the earth requires a significantly large constellation of satellites, each equipped with an appropriate SAR system operating in either a monostatic mode or cooperating with other satellites in a multstatic mode. The SAR antenna must have a suitably large aperture to produce a reasonable beam profile; must have minimal DC power requirements; must be efficient, preferably without active heat management; should be able to steer over a wide angular range electronically; should be low-cost; and should have minimal weight and profile. These and many other similar requirements motivate the use of metasurface apertures, which can be designed to satisfy all of these requirements due to their simplified architecture. With recent advances in launch capabilities rapidly driving down the costs and complexity of satellite deployment, a high-performance, low-profile, and low-cost SAR antenna is the key component to enable an appropriately sized constellation for earth observation. Such a constellation could achieve rapid revisit times, allowing the same target to be imaged at radio frequencies over intervals of tens of minutes or fewer. Given the cost per square meter and relative performance of the metasurface aperture, we believe metasurface apertures will play a pivotal role in future satellite-based SAR systems.
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09:35 Plenary talk: Are We Alone? NASA Technologies to Find Life Beyond Earth and Answers to Other Science Questions
Goutam Chattopadhyay
NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory (USA)
Fundamental science questions drives the selection of NASA missions. We develop instruments to make measurements that can answer those science questions. In this presentation, we will present an overview of the state of the art instruments that we are currently developing and layout the details of the science questions they will try to answer.
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