NISAR reflector being shipped back to US for additional coating

Bengaluru: The radar antenna reflector on the NASA Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite is being shipped back to the US for an additional “special coating”, as the space agencies work toward a new launch window for the earth observation satellite.

The launch readiness date will be determined by the end of April, NASA said. The satellite was earlier set for a tentative launch by late March.

Unfinished work included a special coating to hardware components on the NASA-developed 12-meter radar antenna reflector, as a precautionary step to counter temperature increases that could “potentially affect” the deployment of the reflector.

“Testing and analysis identified a potential for the reflector to experience higher-than-previously anticipated temperatures in its stowed configuration in flight,” a NASA update said.

NISAR is a dual-band low earth orbit observatory that can map nearly the entire surface of the earth every 12 days to generate high-resolution data on multiple ecosystems of the planet – it can track changes in ice mass, vegetation, and sea levels, and help understand natural disasters like earthquakes better. The reflector will transmit and receive microwave signals to and from the earth, enabling this scanning exercise.

Due to the reflector’s size and complexity, it is being shipped from the satellite assembly site – U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru – to a specialised facility in California where the coating will be done. The special coating will limit the temperature by reflecting more solar radiation off the reflector hardware, NASA said.

“Once the thermal performance of the coating has been fully verified, a launch readiness date will be set. When the reflector returns to India, teams from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Isro will integrate it onto the satellite,” the space agency said in the update.