Open Call for Innovative Defense-Related Dual-Purpose Technologies/Solutions with a Clear Air Force Stakeholder Need

Warfighters are disadvantaged by a lack of global, persistent, day and night, all weather, satellite surveillance. Meanwhile, adversary threats are becoming more menacing. Capella Space, founded in 2016, is a new space company deploying a constellation of 36 commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) smallsats. These satellites collect imagery in all weather and lighting conditions and captures amplitude and phase history enabling the extraction of valuable information such as material properties, moisture content, elevation, and precise changes and movements, not available with optical imagery. Persistent SAR provides a reliable capability to improve situational awareness to protect U.S. forces and serve broad commercial applications. The system enables the early detection of enemy actions so threats can be degraded, disrupted, or destroyed before they cause harm. The proposed SBIR Phase 2 project adapts a commercial SAR data service to meet unique Air Force requirements, including hot spot monitoring, change/object detection, and tipping and cueing, while preserving the system’s commercial utility. We demonstrate real-time tasking via GEO relay, SAR data collection using several modes of operation, and rapid SAR data delivery. Capella’s persistent SAR service is a capability never before achieved and will create a new space surveillance tool for commerce, conservation, and security.