The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite. Photo: NASA

[Via Satellite 10-30-2015] Astro Aerospace, a Northrop Grumman company, has received a contract from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to design and manufacture the radar antenna for its NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite.

A joint project between the United States and India, NISAR will be the first radar imaging satellite to use dual L-band and S-band frequencies. The satellite is designed to observe complex processes including ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet dynamics, and natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides. Data collected from NISAR will reveal information about the evolution and state of the Earth’s crust, climate change, and aid future resource and hazard management.

Astro Aerospace will use its AstroMesh deployable mesh reflector, designed to be ultra-lightweight and extremely stiff, for NISAR’s 12-meter aperture antenna. The program award follows the successful deployment and spin up of JPL’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite, launched Jan. 31, for which Astro supplied the 6-meter antenna.