Enabling technologies for the TerraSAR mission

Today, several technologies are under development in Germany funded by the German space center DLR to establish the basis for a future space SAR C/D project. The most important project is the X-band SAR Instrument Demonstrator project (DESA) which was started in fall 1996 and will be finished in September 2000. DESA will develop a flight typical X-band panel which undergoes qualmodel like testing. Such a panel is an active SAR front end equipped with 30 dual polarization CFRP waveguide radiators, 30 TR Modules, RF networks, control and power equipment and main parts of the central control and supply electronics, the control software and the test assembly. Other projects in this area are the pre-qualification of aperture coupled microstrip patch radiators, and onboard SAR processing and data compression technologies. The present X-band instrument technology development will guarantee a high instrument performance level and low development risk for an application project. This paper will show the main technology developments for TerraSAR together with a summary of the mission objectives