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TheEverythingologist t1_ivkvvkb wrote

Have you considered integrating this technology onto a CubeSat platform? It seems like latency and accessibility could be vastly improved by implementing this technology on a CubeSat constellation.

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nasa t1_ivl0dxv wrote

We'd love to do SWOT-style cubesats!

The biggest challenge here is that SWOT uses a very powerful radar with a big antenna. Miniaturizing this is no small feat, but we've been thinking about ways to leverage geostationary radars. There is also some existing work on miniaturizing the previous radar altimetry technology (from missions such as Jason, Sentinel 3, and others).

Look for the mission concept being developed by colleagues from the French Space Agency called SMall Altimetry Satellites for Hydrology (SMASH) which is designed to be a constellation of small satellites. (CD)

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