Project Description:
The radar altimeter will collect high precision measurements of ocean and ice elevation on the Earth's surface. This design is based on the radar altimeter found on the European Remote-Sensing Satellite-1, modified to work at a higher orbital altitude of 1000 km. Team members designed subsystems such as the power supply, microwave input source, Traveling Wave Tube microwave amplifier, electron gun, cooling system, filters, waveguide, and antenna. The final design incorporates off the shelf components that fit the design requirements and custom designed components validated through calculations and simulations in Maxwell 2D.
The microwave input source supplies a 13.8 GHz chirped signal to the Traveling Wave Tube, containing the electron gun and depressed collector to recapture energy from the electron beam. The power supply creates the necessary voltages for the depressed collector and supplies power to the electron gun and microwave input source. A custom cooling system transfers waste heat away from the Traveling Wave tube and radiates it back into space. After the RF signal is amplified by the Traveling Wave Tube, it passes through a passband filter and a Ku Band waveguide before being transmitted out of the antenna.
