Passive Snapshot Remote Imaging of Object Velocity

Abstract

Quantifying a target's velocity is critical for rapid trajectory calculations. Two common active techniques for object tracking in low earth orbit (LEO) includes RADAR and LiDAR, in which velocity is calculated by measuring the returning field's Doppler shift and/or the delivered pulse's time of flight. However, active techniques are often challenged when measuring small or distant objects in medium earth orbits (MEOs), geostationary orbits (GEOs), or geostationary transfer orbits (GTOs) since the detected signal power is reduced both propagating to and from the target [1,2]. Our central hypothesis is that naturally occurring narrow-band solar absorption features can be used to passively gauge an object's radial velocity using a single frame of data. The goal is to estimate an orbit using only two passive measurements of angular position and Doppler velocity.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 26, 2018
Accession Number
AD1058373

Entities

People

  • A. I. Karadkar
  • B. A. Pantalone
  • Michael Kudenov

Organizations

  • North Carolina State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Satellites
  • Bragg Gratings
  • Communication Systems
  • Doppler Effect
  • Earth Orbits
  • Fiber Bragg Gratings
  • Frequency
  • Frequency Bands
  • Geosynchronous Orbits
  • Interferometers
  • Light Sources
  • Low Earth Orbits
  • Measurement
  • Optical Correlators
  • Optics
  • Orbits
  • Photons
  • Refractive Index
  • Solar Spectrum
  • Spectra
  • Spectroscopy
  • Standards
  • Statistics

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  • Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Technology.
  • Radar Systems Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Orbital Debris
  • Space - Space Objects