Use of Future Leo Mega-Constellations to Improve the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) via a GNSS-Based Passive Multistatic Radar (G-PMR) Service

• Country: Netherlands
• Summary: Use of Future Leo Mega-Constellations to Improve the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) via a GNSS-Based Passive Multistatic Radar (G-PMR) Service
• NLT Ref No: 104485613
• Deadline: 20 Sep 2024
• Financier: Other Funding Agencies
• Purchaser Ownership: Government
• Tender Value: Refer Document
• Notice Type: Tender
• Document Ref. No.: 1-12401
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• Description:
• Tenders are invited for Use of Future Leo Mega-Constellations to Improve the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) via a GNSS-Based Passive Multistatic Radar (G-PMR) Service - Expro Plus. Open Date: 17/07/2024 11:57 CET Closing Date: 20/09/2024 13:00 CET Price Range: 100-200 KEURO The unsustainable increment of space debris in LEO orbit is growing the risk of a Kessler syndrome that might have a catastrophic impact on all existing LEO constellations. Therefore, to improve the Space Situational Awareness (SSA), this study aims at proving that future LEO mega-constellations, essentially designed to provide COM and PNT services, may also be used to monitor space debris via the integration of a Passive Multistatic Radar-Based (PMR-Based) like service. This idea dips the roots in C. R. Benson seminal work "Enhancing space situational awareness using passive radar from space based emitters of opportunity," in which it was assessed the theoretical feasibility of using GNSS ground receivers as passive radar for space debris monitoring. In very brief:- PROs are: MEO GNSS satellites provide a full coverage of LEO region along with a wide availability of well-known positioning signals, and a goodsatellite clock stability, that make them an ideal source to track LEO debris.- CONs are: the very poor level of scattered GNSS signals received on ground along with the uncontrolled dynamic of debris that make their detection and tracking very challenging.However, the above limitations can be at least partially mitigated if the PMR is, for instance, installed on a CubeSat, because of:- the proximity to debris orbital layer (i.e., better visibility),- low relative velocity between the transmitting source (the illuminator) and the receiver (i.e. the CubeSat constellation),- negligible atmospheric loss.From this encouraging perspective, the development of a new LEO mega-constellation (already conceived to provide COM/PNT services) equipped with a PMR-based solution might be a quite unique opportunity to boost space debris monitoring by also exploiting some additional advantages, e.g.:-use of known LEO PNT/COM signals, e.g., irradiated by antenna side-lobes or LEO sat. at higher orbit, as high-power signal-of-opportunity to detect andtrack debris,- a cooperative approach fostered by the network of LEO sat. composing the constellation,- use of new enabling technologies (e.g., recent studies on analog/digital Beam-Forming, machine learning, cloud computing, etc.) to detect, track, and classify debris
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