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nasa t1_ivl0dxv wrote

Reply to comment by TheEverythingologist in AskScience AMA Series: We're NASA experts working on SWOT - an upcoming mission that will observe nearly all water on Earth's surface. Ask us anything! by AskScienceModerator

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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