NON-REDUNDANT HEXSAT FORMATIONS FOR IMPROVED L-BAND DATA

Missions like The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission observe soil moisture and ocean salinity at a 40 km ground resolution using L-band synthetic aperture radiometry. This is achieved using 69 small antennas arranged on a single spacecraft. Concepts like SFASIL and TriHex have been proposed to distribute antennas across three large satellites to increase the synthetic aperture and improve ground resolution. This study investigates the use of multiple HexSats – a novel, flat, nano-satellite platform – for synthetic aperture radiometry.