Is this project an undergraduate, graduate, or faculty project?
Graduate
Project Type
individual
Campus
Daytona Beach
Authors' Class Standing
Chinmay Gaikwad, Graduate student
Lead Presenter's Name
Chinmay Gaikwad
Lead Presenter's College
DB College of Engineering
Faculty Mentor Name
Dr. Hao Peng
Abstract
Modeling a Spaceborne Passive Radar Architecture for Tracking Resident Space Objects Using Ground-Based Signals of Opportunity Due to an increase in manned and unmanned space activities, there is an increase in demand for resilient space operations. This project investigates passive-radar architecture for space domain awareness in which satellites in a low-Earth-orbit mega-constellation are adapted as distributed sensing platforms for tracking debris and other non-cooperative resident space objects. The motivation is to overcome the coverage, cost, and scalability limits of conventional active or ground-based systems by using lightweight passive receivers that exploit ground-based illuminators of opportunity. In this concept, the receivers observe reflections from higher-altitude objects and provide angle-only measurements for orbit determination and tracking, enabling a globally distributed and persistent surveillance framework. The current methodology combines a high-fidelity simulation environment, a physics-based passive-radar measurement model, and a hybrid orbit-determination pipeline. The simulation evaluates bistatic transmitter-target-receiver geometry across a large constellation and debris population. The measurement model converts this geometry into azimuth and elevation observations with dynamic heteroscedastic covariance driven by signal-to-noise ratio, off-boresight pointing, and elevation-margin effects. These measurements are then processed through multi-sensor tracklet formation, constrained admissible-region multi-hypothesis filter based initial orbit determination, and UKF-based sequential tracking for orbit maintenance. This framework is designed to remain effective under short observation arcs, intermittent visibility, and varying measurement quality. In this poster, the qualitative analysis of the simulated passive radar model will be presented, and their impacts to the orbit determination performance will be analyzed using a scenario of receivers and space objects debris. Preliminary results have demonstrated stable large-scale angle-only tracking performance. Overall, the study demonstrates that passive radar hosted on mega-constellations is a promising pathway toward scalable and persistent orbit determination for LEO debris tracking. Future work includes improving the model fidelity and validation with sensor hardware simulations.
Did this research project receive funding support (Spark, SURF, Research Abroad, Student Internal Grants, Collaborative, Climbing, or Ignite Grants) from the Office of Undergraduate Research?
No
Included in
Astrodynamics Commons, Navigation, Guidance, Control and Dynamics Commons, Space Vehicles Commons
Modeling a Spaceborne Passive Radar Architecture for Tracking Resident Space Objects Using Ground-Based Signals of Opportunity
Modeling a Spaceborne Passive Radar Architecture for Tracking Resident Space Objects Using Ground-Based Signals of Opportunity Due to an increase in manned and unmanned space activities, there is an increase in demand for resilient space operations. This project investigates passive-radar architecture for space domain awareness in which satellites in a low-Earth-orbit mega-constellation are adapted as distributed sensing platforms for tracking debris and other non-cooperative resident space objects. The motivation is to overcome the coverage, cost, and scalability limits of conventional active or ground-based systems by using lightweight passive receivers that exploit ground-based illuminators of opportunity. In this concept, the receivers observe reflections from higher-altitude objects and provide angle-only measurements for orbit determination and tracking, enabling a globally distributed and persistent surveillance framework. The current methodology combines a high-fidelity simulation environment, a physics-based passive-radar measurement model, and a hybrid orbit-determination pipeline. The simulation evaluates bistatic transmitter-target-receiver geometry across a large constellation and debris population. The measurement model converts this geometry into azimuth and elevation observations with dynamic heteroscedastic covariance driven by signal-to-noise ratio, off-boresight pointing, and elevation-margin effects. These measurements are then processed through multi-sensor tracklet formation, constrained admissible-region multi-hypothesis filter based initial orbit determination, and UKF-based sequential tracking for orbit maintenance. This framework is designed to remain effective under short observation arcs, intermittent visibility, and varying measurement quality. In this poster, the qualitative analysis of the simulated passive radar model will be presented, and their impacts to the orbit determination performance will be analyzed using a scenario of receivers and space objects debris. Preliminary results have demonstrated stable large-scale angle-only tracking performance. Overall, the study demonstrates that passive radar hosted on mega-constellations is a promising pathway toward scalable and persistent orbit determination for LEO debris tracking. Future work includes improving the model fidelity and validation with sensor hardware simulations.