Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging of Space Debris Objects

One of the urgent nowadays problem is to determine the characteristics of space debris (SD) in near-Earth space. Non-functioning space vehicles and their remains, collectively referred to as SD, are located both at low altitudes of up to 2000 km, orbits, and in orbits between 19,000 and 22,000 km, and in the geostationary ring above 32,000 km. Most of these objects are in high-inclination orbits, the planes of which intersect, so the average relative speed of their mutual flight is about 10 km/s. Due to the huge supply of kinetic energy, the collision of any of these objects with an operating spacecraft can damage it or even disable it. Small fractions of space debris pose the main threat to the implementation of safe space activities, since the intensity of passage through a unit of surface for small-sized (less than 10 cm) fractions is about an order of magnitude greater than for fractions more than 10 cm. Therefore, effective information support for the safety of space activities is possible only in the organization of continuous operational control of not only large, but small-sized space objects, including small fractions of space debris. In To identify the geometric shape of space debris objects, to clarify their flight orbit, the presence of rotation, an optimal algorithm for the inverse synthetic aperture radar imaging of space debris objects in the multi-position radar system is proposed. In this paper, an analysis of the trajectory signal was carried out, potential resolutions were obtained in terms of range and azimuth, an estimate of the synthesizing time was made.