Feasibility Study on a PCL Radar for Space Debris Detection

There are more than 19,000 objects in earth orbit as of 2018. These space objects are tracked by the space surveillance network (SSN). We found it necessary of own radar facilities for searching a lost satellite and space debris through an accident on a small satellite of the past. To establish an own radar facility by a civilian agency as a laboratory of a University, issues concerning many costs, a licensed radio band for transmitters, and a fixed installation location arise. We propose that one of the solutions on this issue is a Passive Coherent Location (PCL) radar. The PCL radar is a low cost and compact radar system due to using `illuminators of opportunity' as their source of radar transmission instead of a dedicated transmitter. This paper describes a feasibility study on a PCL radar system for space debris detection. The proposed PCL system consists of Earth-orbiting satellites which are transmitting radio waves and a ground-based receiving system. The receiving system consists of a parabolic antenna with high gain and portable SDR equipment with a wideband frequency range. The cost of this system was estimated at less than $20,000, and the weight was less than 50 kg. The volume of the facility is 0.2% of that of an existing active radar for space debris detection. As a result of the feasibility simulations, it became clear that this proposed PCL radar has a detection capability of space debris from LEO to GEO. Using the JCSAT-3A system, the detectable size converted into the physical silhouette area was 0.70 m
²
at an altitude of 400 km. Using the NOAA-19 system, the detectable size was 0.93 m
²
at an altitude of 800 km.