A new high sensitivity radar sensor for space debris detection and accurate orbit determination

Abstract

As the amount of space debris orbiting the earth is continuously increasing, it is becoming essential to monitor and predict the debris' trajectories in order to avoid collision that could threaten space missions, i.e. operative satellites or manned spacecraft. An innovative bistatic radar system, that couples multi-beaming and ranging techniques, is proposed in this work as an instrument for the observation of Earth-orbiting objects. The main characteristics of the sensor are described. In addition, tailored algorithms have been implemented to perform orbit determination using the peculiar outputs provided by the sensor. The results of numerical simulations are illustrated to assess its performances for space debris detection and orbit determination.