Proposals for Advanced Radar Technology
NASA IS REVIEWING PROPOSALS
SOUGHT FOR a low-cost, advanced imaging radar technology that will
reduce the cost and enhance the performance of Earth-observing satellites.
This in turn will open new opportunities for the U.S. commercial remote-sensing
industry.
The Lightweight Synthetic Aperture mission, or "LightSAR," is
part of NASA's long-term effort in the development and productive
use of imaging radars. Past NASA radar missions, which have been
short in duration, have established the potential of imaging radar
to expand scientific knowledge of Earth and the planets.
The satellite's capability to observe Earth, day and night, in
all weather, is expected to result in numerous scientifically valuable
and commercially lucrative applications. For example, LightSAR will
have the unique capability to continuously monitor minute changes
in Earth's surface, down to the one-millimeter level, which will
lead to improved understanding of natural hazards, such as earthquakes
and volcanoes.
The satellite's advanced capabilities also will greatly help improve
governments' emergency management efforts and may prove useful to
industries involved in disaster recovery. Other applications of
the satellite will include observing the movements and changing
size of glaciers and ice floes as part of long-term Earth climate
studies. Forest regrowth and global vegetation maps produced by
LightSAR will support NASA's ongoing studies of Earth's environment.
LightSAR's high-resolution imaging capability has significant
commercial potential for mapping Earth's surface, environmental
surveillance, crop monitoring, land management, planning and development.
One of the unique features of this NASA program will be to encourage
proposers to share the costs of developing and deploying the satellite's
capabilities in return for commercial rights to data.
Proposals for mission development and operations using LightSAR
have been sought from many organizations, including educational
institutions, industry, nonprofit institutions, NASA field centers,
federally funded research and development centers and other government
agencies.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is managing
the LightSAR project for NASA's Office of Earth Science in Washington,
D.C., which oversees a long-term, coordinated research enterprise
designed to study Earth as a global environmental system.
For more information, contact David Steitz at NASA Headquarters.
Call: 202/358-1730, Fax: 202/358-4210, E-mail: dsteitz@hq.nasa.gov
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