Satellite-aided radar imaging (SARI)

Abstract

This paper describes a novel technique for radar imaging of space objects. The approach is founded on using a small satellite near the target of interest as the receive end of a high-power ground-based radar transmitter for imaging. The small satellite is equipped with an open loop receiver for sampling and processing the observed wideband signal and a GPS receiver for orbit determination. It also contains appropriate algorithms for signal processing and receive and transmit antennas for collecting the radar signal and transmitting telemetry to the ground. The discussion in this paper is limited mainly to a point design for simplicity. It should be noted that the reach and capability of the proposed approach go beyond the example presented in this paper.