RODiO: a cluster of 16U Cubesats for in-orbit technological demonstration of distributed radar imaging and hybrid propulsion

RODiO is an innovative mission concept which has successfully concluded phase A study in the framework of the ALCOR program, funded and coordinated by the Italian Space Agency. The main objectives of the mission are i) in-orbit technological demonstration of Distributed Synthetic Aperture Radar (DSAR) concept; ii) in-orbit-demonstration of a novel hybrid rocket propulsion system for formation reconfiguration and iii) the validation of new SAR measures and products suitable for a commercial/scientific downstream. To reach these objectives, the mission relies on a cluster of 4 CubeSats. All the Cubesats embark a receiving-only X-band SAR instrument able to collect bistatic echoes exploiting PLATiNO-1 (PLT-1) SAR satellite as an opportunity illuminator, and one of the CubeSats hosts a novel hybrid rocket propulsion unit that enables orbit reconfiguration. As conceived, the mission foresees that all the Cubesats flies both in formation with PLT-1, at a safe distance of tens of km, but also formation-flying techniques are used to keep all the CubeSats in the cluster within an overall envelope of a few hundred meters, until the orbit reconfiguration maneuvers occurs, in which one Cubesat flyes far away in across track direction. The paper shows an overview of the mission with specific focus on space segment.