Ground Based Radar For Space Situational Awareness

Technology Roadmap Sections and Deliverables

This technology roadmap is identified as:

• 2GREAT - Ground Based Radar For Space Situational Awareness

Or as Ground-based Radar to Enable Awareness and Tracking (GREAT)

Space Situational Awareness and Tracking (SSA/T) is the operational concept to detect, identify, and track Resident Space Objects (RSOs), orbiting around the Earth. The SSA/T enterprise is comprised of ground-based and space-based sensors with a broad customer base. SSA/T originated from the need to track RSOs in orbit to support data analysis and collision avoidance of active satellite vehicles (SVs), inactive SVs, and orbital debris. As of 1 September 2023, the European Space Agency estimates about 8600 functioning SVs, over 1,036,500 objects greater than 1cm, and more than 11,000 tonnes of mass in orbit^1.

The figure below illustrates the levels within the SSA/T enterprise.

Ground Based Radar For Space Situational Awareness and the SSA/T Enterprise

Many systems comprise the architecture, each with its own technological challenges, advantages, and disadvantages.

Roadmap Overview

Artist's impression of various SSA systems comprising a full SSA architecture. “Space Surveillance and Tracking - SST Segment.” Accessed October 1, 2023. https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Space_Surveillance_and_Tracking_-_SST_Segment.

Amount of Orbital Debris by Type, from NASA Quarterly "Orbital Debris" March 2022 Newsletter, Accessed 2 October 2023 https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/quarterly-news/pdfs/ODQNv27i1.pdf

Design Structure Matrix (DSM) Allocation

The DSM below provides a NxN mapping of the technologies within the SSA/T Enterprise, as decomposed initially in the SSA/T Enterprise figure above. The DSM describes the relationship between elements within the matrix as a component relationship (green), functional relationship (yellow), physically connected (red), or supporting relationship (grey).

A component relationship is when one element is a component of the other. For example, the Radar Antenna has many components, such as the antenna array and the physical antenna structure.

A functional relationship is when one element does not physically connect to another but fulfills a function together. For example, the Radar Signal Processing System relies on information from the User Interface on the Pulse Generator.

A physical relationship is when one element is physically connected to another. An example is the Joint Space Operations Center's connection to a communication network that is not necessarily physically connected to the ground-based radar system.

Lastly, a supporting relationship is when one element provides support to the other that is not functional or physical. For example, Space-based and Ground-based systems may coordinate to support the orbit determination of a piece of space debris.

References

[1] European Space Agency, Space Environment Statistics, Accessed 1 October 2023 https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/About_space_debris#:~:text=In%20more%20than%2060%20years,10%20cm%20in%20low%2DEarth