Coherent Beacon System for TechSat21 Science and Engineering

Abstract

A coherent radio beacon system has been designed that addresses the scientific, engineering and operational needs of the TechSat21 distributed aperture Space Based Radar (SBR). Had the program gone ahead, the beacon would have functioned as an unambiguous diagnostic of ionospheric effects for comparison to SBR performance. The cumulative beacon observations would have also provided the detailed statistical characterization of the radar channel that is required for development of SBR operational and mitigation strategies. As a scientific resource, beacons installed on multiple satellites of the TechSat21 cluster would have been able to separate, for the first time, the spatial and temporal variations in ionospheric structure. The engineering and scientific design rationale is outlined, antenna options are discussed, and a high-accuracy, beacon-based cluster ranging system is described.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 23, 2002
Accession Number
ADA402834

Entities

People

  • Robert C. Livingston

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Bandwidth
  • Carrier Frequencies
  • Detectors
  • Engineering
  • Frequency Bands
  • L Band
  • Oscillators
  • Phase Measurement
  • Radar
  • Radio Beacons
  • Radio Frequency
  • Range Finding
  • Space Based
  • Spacecraft
  • Transmitters

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science
  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering.
  • Aerospace Test and Evaluation
  • Optical Fiber Sensing and Electromagnetic Propagation.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Space Objects