The PRETTY mission

PRETTY is short for Passive REfleTometry and DosimeTrY and is currently ready for flight. It is an in-orbit demonstrator mission of the European Space Agency ESA, and is being developed by Beyond Gravity Austria together with Graz University of Technology and Seibersdorf Laboratories. The Graz University of Technology is in charge for the system design and has the overall responsibility for the development, assembly and later also the operation of the satellite.

The primary mission objective is to analyse ice thickness and its variation over time, as well as sea levels using passive reflectometry. The direct and Earth-reflected GPS/Galileo signals will be compared. This has the advantage that, in contrast to active systems, a very small and energy-efficient module can be used. As a further task, the radiation environment is recorded and researched via a dosimeter in low-Earth orbit.