Eyes in the Sky: Iranian American Launches Space Radar Company for Real-Time High-Resolution Monitoring of the Planet
Independent Aggregator of Iran-related News/Events, Kodoom.com: Shortly before the US and Israeli governments condemned Iran's failed attempt to launch a high- resolution image collection satellite (Payam) into Low Earth Orbit (LEO), another Payam was in the news as founder of the first US company to commercially deploy SAR technology into space: Payam Banazadeh, the Iranian American CEO of Capella Space.
SAR, which stands for Synthetic Aperture Radar, has been used by NASA since the 1970s to detect sub-meter changes to the Earth’s surface—stunningly through clouds, smoke, fog and darkness. When fully deployed, Capella’s small but powerful SAR satellites, operating in the X-band, can see through clouds and in the dark, to offer "hourly" coverage of every point on Earth, rendered in sub-meter resolution, through the world’s largest constellation of radar satellites.
Capella plans to build and launch small spacecraft at a cost in the millions of dollars, an order of magnitude cheaper than the current generation of radar satellites. Capella's first satellite was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket according to Quartz: "Hundreds of miles above the earth, it will maneuver with a water-based thruster that Banazadeh jokes is “pretty much vaping in space.” Once in orbit, it will unfold the sail and begin bombarding the planet with radio energy. Each blast will be reflected back to the antenna, allowing onboard computers to analyze it and create a picture of the world below, peering through clouds and even under water."
Payam who holds a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin previously worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). Payam has earned a graduate management & business degree from Stanford University and is a fellow of U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).
Capella plans to serve both government and commercial sectors and they will have a close relationship within U.S. Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) agencies, including the Department of Defense.
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