From the end of 2019, the German Armed Forces will be replacing its current SAR-Lupe system with the satellite-supported radar reconnaissance system SARah.

Prime contractor OHB System AG has commissioned RUAG Space to supply navigation receivers for SARah’s two reflector satellites. What’s special about this latest generation of navigation receivers, which RUAG Space has developed specifically for use on satellites, is that they will also be able process signals from a variety of navigation satellite systems – including the United States’ GPS and Europe’s Galileo systems – to deliver highly accurate positioning information.

The accuracy of space-based observation and measurements depends on scientists being able to track where each satellite is at any given moment and to ensure it sticks to its intended flightpath. That’s why the satellites use signals from navigation satellite systems such as the United States’ GPS and Europe’s Galileo. RUAG Space in Vienna developed the innovative, space-hardened navigation signal receivers and tailored them to meet precise orbit determination (POD) requirements.

Unlike the GPS receivers commonly used in terrestrial applications, which process only one frequency, these devices are capable of simultaneously processing signals received at two different frequencies, and thus delivering positioning information of the highest accuracy. Their design is based on application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) which makes for an extremely lightweight device that still complies with all necessary requirements for reliability and resistance to radiation for deployment in space.
 
This latest generation of receivers will allow the processing of signals from a variety of navigation satellite systems. Besides the United States’ GPS, in the future SARah will be able to use data from Europe’s Galileo system to provide highly accurate positioning information. RUAG Space in Austria will build and test the receivers, which – along with the receiver antennas from RUAG Space AB in Sweden – will be delivered to system prime contractor OHB System AG in Bremen at the beginning of 2017.