Abstract:

A bistatic radar system combined with the Tianlai radio telescope array and an incoherent scattering radar, which is assumed as a source of transmission in Qujing, Yunnan Province, is proposed to detect the space debris. The detection performance of the system, including the radar cross section (RCS), the detection time and the detection efficiency of the Tianlai radio telescope array is calculated and analyzed in the paper. The analysis shows that the system has the potential ability to detect small space debris whose diameter is less than 10 cm, and then provides the methods of determining the cross beams and positioning space debris based on this system.

Key words: Space debris detection, Radio astronomy, Tianlai radio telescope array, Bistatic radar monitoring system, Incoherent scattering radar, Detection performance