A Detection System for the Naval Space Surveillance

A Detection System for the Naval Space Surveillance Radar Elijah Brown Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

NAVSPASUR • The purpose of the fence is to track all man-made objects orbiting the earth.

The Kickapoo Transmitter

Goals • Find out more about the details of the system. • Determine the feasibility of detecting the reflections. • Investigate what would be required to compute orbits given only the reflection.

Diagram Vorb ~110 miles Prescott Receiver Gila River Transmitter

A Receiving Site • Capable of. 01 degree accuracy. • Captures Doppler shift as well as Ao. A.

Our Receiver • 8 Element Beam tuned to 216. 98 MHz • Beam width of about 40 degrees. • About 12 d. Bd of gain.

Our Receiver

Our Receiver • Hairpin matched • High-tech counter-balanced ; ) • 1: 1 Balun

Testing! • About 45 ohm impedance, slightly inductive.

Down Converter • Perseus SDR receives from 0 -30 MHz • Down East Microwave down converter tuned to 216. 98 MHz. • Mixes 216. 98 MHz to 28. 98 MHz

The Antenna • Temporary mounting on tripod • Adjustable azimuth & elevation

First Signals • Space Station & Shuttle Pass

Perseoids Meteor Shower • Large amount of Doppler shift due to high velocity

Perseoids Meteor Shower

Perseoids Meteor Shower

In the Future… • Calculate the Keplerian elements of objects. – Requires Ao. A and accurate doppler shift. – More antennas for interferometry. • Digital signal processing – Pick out signal from amongst the noise. – Measure phase shift and doppler shift of received signal.

Vorb θ, Ao. A s Prescott Receiver Kickapoo Transmitter

That’s it! • Questions? • Good Ideas?