Satellites detection, tracking and cataloguing system

Abstract

The growth in the amount of space debris in the Earth orbit demands more and more effort to establish space situational awareness (SSA) programmes. The solutions used by many countries, including France and the United States are complex as well as expensive. The aim of the project in question was to establish an affordable and simple radar-based surveillance system allowing to detect, track and catalogue objects in the outer space. The main elements used were: a Yagi antenna with proper equipment as a Doppler-shifted signal receiver, two programs for raw data analysis and orbit fitting as well as a database containing information about detected satellites. Basing on the frequency of signals emitted by the Graves radar, an object orbit estimation was made using a C++ program and then stored in a database. The phenomenon of relativistic Doppler effect was considered while analysing the data. The amplitude of signal gave the frequency as function of time. Next, a circular orbit approximation was found and saved to the database. On average 1176 satellite flights have been registered every week so far. The total cost of the system did not exceed €430, whereas the whole ESA's Space Situational Awareness Programme needs a budget of €95 million. It was possible to create a low-cost and uncomplicated part of a SSA system. The last and only functionality left is object identification by its cross section, which is planned to be developed in the near future.