Long-time Radarsat maker and operator MDA says it has completed the preliminary design review of its next-generation synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite, SARnext.
In a keynote speech at the virtual GeoIgnite conference Wednesday (April 21), Minda Suchan, vice-president of MDA’s geointelligence unit, said the satellite maker is trying to make sure that this satellite will be ready to meet current market requirements in the coming months.
“We’re still evaluating and assessing our customer needs against where we want to go, relative to the mission,” Suchan said at the conference. “So, [there are] still some details to be fleshed out in coming weeks and months, so just stand by; we’ll have more announcements and more details to come as we move forward in our plans and our program.”
When asked about the applications of small satellite technology to synthetic aperture radar, Suchan said “there’s a lot of great technology that’s happening in that arena.” She cautioned that it is possible to get high resolution with small satellites, but more “focused on a specific area”; depending on what customers require, a larger satellite might be needed that can monitor a greater swath of land, she said. All told, Suchan advocated for “fusion of data or combinations or overlays of data on the analytic side” to gather information from satellites large and small.
Suchan joined MDA in 2020 following 25 years of experience in the defence and intelligence community, especially within the United States. Her work includes a tenure at the National Reconnaissance Office, where she said she learned the true value of accurate and timely data collection. “It was critical that the information pulled from the satellite collector had to be meaningful,” she added.
Her other experience includes running a geospatial governance business with a focus on recruiting name-brand customers such as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. She decided to join MDA in part, she said, because the company is “in a unique market position to drive value throughout the process from collection to delivery.”
In Canada, SAR’s ability to penetrate the country’s cloudy regions, to estimate ice type and age, and to examine the seabed all have valuable applications for the country’s landmass examinations, she said, particularly in underserved regions such as the Arctic. “The key takeaway here is that Canada needs a sensor suitable for daylight, for seeing through clouds, with a broad area of coverage,” she said. MDA plans a workshop for industry April 26 to introduce newer entrants to its various SAR products, she added.
The Radarsat series’ space-bound SAR sensors include Radarsat 1 (now retired), Radarsat 2 (which launched in 2009 and is still operational) and the three-satellite Radarsat Constellation Mission that launched in 2019. Various applications of these satellites include detecting illegal fishing and forestry, providing humanitarian aid for disaster relief, monitoring ice erosion in the Arctic, supporting natural resource industries and monitoring infrastructure in the remote north, Suchan said.
The market is getting more crowded with international entrants, she added, but MDA said it remains committed to staying competitive. “The number of satellites is increasing [worldwide], each with their own unique capability,” she said of the competition.