A new NASA Earth science mission is currently being built and tested at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NISAR – or the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar – is an Earth-orbiting satellite that will collect critical data on how the planet is responding to climate change. But before it can begin its science, JPL engineers must design and build the unique technology that will set it apart, including the largest reflector antenna ever launched by NASA.In this live Q&A, we’ll talk with two NISAR mission team members and answer your questions about what it takes to monitor Earth’s vital signs.Guests: Wendy Edelstein, payload manager, NASA JPLRicha Sirohi, systems engineer, NASA JPL
NISAR’s large deployable antenna will be used in a unique operating mode known as SweepSAR to provide wide area coverage and fine spatial resolution at the same time. When it transmits microwaves, the radar’s signal feed is stationary, producing a narrow beam of microwave energy. But when it receives the returning signal echoes, the radar feed sweeps its beam across the antenna’s reflector, thus giving SweepSAR its name.
List of Indian Earth observing satellites with scheduled launch time period; the list appears to have been updated in October 2022:http://database.eohandbook.com/database/agencysummary.aspx?agencyID=11Approved MissionsOCEANSAT-3 Nov 2022 (launched Nov 26)NISAR Sep 2023 (other sources say 2024)TRISHNA Dec 2024OCEANSAT-3A Nov 2025RESOURCESAT-3 Nov 2025RESOURCESAT-3S Jun 2026Planned MissionsINSAT-3DS 2023RISAT-1B 2023RESOURCESAT-3A 2026RESOURCESAT-3SA 2027Considered MissionsnoneHRSAT (was Aug 2023 launch) and ATMSAT-1 (was 2025 launch) are gone from the list.
