An investigation shall be done of the feasibility of a fractionated (multi-static) surface/sub-surface sounder configuration that fulfils the needs of the key application of interest i.e. remote sensing of the planets or moons of planets. This type of configuration allows to increase the SNR (having more than one receiver) and together with the use of advanced radar processing strategies enables the clutter removal or feature extraction.

The supra-THz (>3 THz) bands have been recently proposed for low Earth orbit THz remote sounding missions such as LOCUS (Low-Cost Upper-atmosphere Sounder). In order to achieve coherent detection, heterodyne receivers at supra-THz frequencies are under development by integrating in a single waveguide cavity a Schottky based mixers fed by a Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) as Local Oscillator (LO). Thanks to the QCL, enough LO power is available to drive the mixer.

The continuously increasing amount of long-term and of historic data in EO facilities in the form of online datasets and archives makes it necessary to address technologies for the long-term management of these data sets, including their consolidation, preservation, and continuation across multiple missions. The management of long EO data time series of continuing or historic missions, with more than 20 years of data available already today, requires technical solutions and technologies which differ considerably from the ones exploited by existing systems.

Over the last decades, the spaceborne remote sensing community has been focused on the development of imaging radars at RF frequencies such as S-band, L-band, C-band and X-band.

ITU regulations currently permit the use of Ka-band for active spaceborne microwave remote sensing but only few missions are considering applying this frequency band such as the SARAL mission with the ALtiKa instrument (launched 2013).