Recent Advances of the BIRALET System about Space Debris Detection

Abstract

Space debris is internationally recognized as a planetary threat. Efforts to enhance the worldwide radar monitoring networks have been intensified in the last years. Among the new radars employed for the observations, one of the most promising is the Bistatic Radar for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Tracking (BIRALET), which employs the Sardinia Radio Telescope as a receiving segment. The Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) has recently been proven to be a reliable instrument for space debris monitoring and, for this purpose, over the years has undergone some substantial modifications in order to be able to rise to the status of a fully functional radar receiver. However, an extensive measurement campaign, in order to assess the real potential of the radar, has never been done before. In this paper, the authors present the first real space debris measurement campaign of the SRT, made between December 2018 and October 2019 using the new dedicated channel of the P-band receiver. A total of 27 objects were correctly detected during this campaign, characterized by a radar cross section (RCS) interval between 0.13 and 13.4 m2 and a range interval between 459 and 1224 km.

The Sardinia Space Communication Asset: Performance of the Sardinia Deep Space Antenna X-Band Downlink Capability

“…Let Pst be the additional noise power when the antenna is pointed towards a known radio source. Then, by measuring the following ratio (7) the value of G/Tsys can be determined using the formula [22]:…”

“…Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3183745 cold sky 𝑃 and the additional power 𝑃 from the calibrator. This allowed us to compute R using (7), and then the G/Tsys using (8). On the other hand, an independent measurement of the system temperature 𝑇 has been provided relying on a calibrated noise source (or noise diode) that produces a known power per unit bandwidth.…”

“…The Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) (Fig. 1) is a generalpurpose fully steerable 64-meter diameter radio telescope operating with high efficiency across the 0.3-116 GHz frequency range [1,2] and designed to be used for astronomy [2]- [5], geodesy, and space science [6,7].…”

The Coaxial L-P Cryogenic Receiver of the Sardinia Radio Telescope

“…space applications and the follow-up of space science missions [5]. Recently, the telescope has also been used for Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) [6][7][8].…”

“…Simultaneous observations with the L-band receiver at 1548 MHz were also performed but did not detect any bursts. A further application of the SRT in the P band channel (and linear polarization) is space debris detection, as the receiving part of the BIRALET bistatic radar [6][7][8].…”