Smallest radar to be flown in space

Named for the Roman name for the daughter of Hera, Juventas might be small, but it has a wide technical footprint. Its low-frequency radar instrument – the smallest radar system flown in space – was designed by France’s Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble at the Université Grenoble Alpes and Technical University Dresden, with electronics coming from EmTroniX in Luxembourg. Its radar signals will be transmitted from a quartet of 1.5 m-long antennas, longer than the Juventas spacecraft itself, which have been contributed by Astronika in Poland.

“The Juventas Radar – or JuRa – instrument is unique, and will give the science community a rare insight into the making of an asteroid,” explains Jan Persson. “It has been highly miniaturised to fit into the CubeSat envelope. The main challenge has been that the instrument generates a lot of heat inside the spacecraft, which our thermal design team at GomSpace has worked hard to take care of.”