ESA will drive the development of a new experimental surveillance radar, as part of the Agency’s Space Environment Awareness (SSA) program, totest new techniques to monitor the position of fragments of space debris, helping operators improve safety in orbit. The rapid detection and monitoring of fragments of space debris will make it possible to assess the risks of them impacting other satellites and promptly alert operators to implement evasion maneuvers.
The project will be carried out by the French research center ONERA and five industrial partners from Spain, France and Switzerland to collaborate in the design of a new surveillance radar and in the development of a functional prototype. The new radar will be of the bistatic type, and it will be based on the parallel contract signed between ESA and the Spanish company Indra Espacio SA in July 2010 for the development of a monostatic radar.
Radars work by emitting electromagnetic energy towards a target and analyzing the signal it reflects. In the monostatic type, the same antenna acts as transmitter and receiver, transmitting energy in discrete pulses. In bistatics, the emitter is separated from the receiver, and transmits energy continuously.
“By having the two types of radars, we will be able to carry out comparative studies to test and validate new techniques ofdetection and monitoring of fragments of space debris“explains Gian Maria Pinna, Head of the Earth Segment of ESA’s SSA program.” These two radars will be part of a complex network of sensors, which will also include optical telescopes and data processing centers that will allow space debris to be monitored in all orbital regions “.
Radar technology is very effective at detecting objects in low or high eccentricity orbits, but optical technology is better for monitoring objects in medium or geostationary orbits.
