The drone took to the sky over Finland to assess the suitability of one particular terrestrial technology for space: the radar systems found in many of today’s cars, responsible for automated cruise control and other safe driving functions.
ESA worked with the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland to test the suitability of automotive 77 GHz ‘frequency-modulated continuous-wave’ (FMCW) radar for entry, descent and landing on a planetary surface and for in-orbit rendezvous scenarios.
“These kinds of radars are commonplace in automotive vehicles today; the first one using the E-band millimeter-wave frequencies was introduced by Mercedes Benz before the turn of the century,” explains ESA microwave engineer Vaclav Valenta, overseeing the project.
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