The satellite will have a number of viewing modes that will enable it to perform a wide range of roles, from flood monitoring and land cover classification to disaster mapping and maritime enforcement - notably ship tracking and oil spill detection.

BBC: Surrey to start making radar satellites

Luna does contract research and development, plumbing the possibilities in fields such as bomb detection and satellite oil exploration.

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Ironically, in his former life, Peter was CFO at a large oil company and once wrote a serious presentation on fraud detection and prevention.

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