MetaSensing X Band SAR Payload for Small Satellite and High Altitude Stratospheric Platforms: Design and Validation Measurements

Up to few years ago the Space was a matter of big agencies and large companies due to the cost of space qualified components. Factors like radiation hardening, redundancy and cost of launch posed a barrier to smaller entities, independently of the quality of the proposed ideas. Nowadays things are changing very rapidly: New launchers are under construction that will reduce further this important factor of cost The Electronics is experiencing a rapid growth of integration density, also voltages are always getting reduced For this reason novel opinions and approaches are growing in the Space community, at least for Small Satellites operating al Low Earth Orbit (around 500 km) and High Altitude Stratospheric Platforms (HAPS). The paper reports on the design and validation measurements of the system architecture.