The Planned Space Science Utilizations of the New Sardinia 64-m Radio Telescope

This paper describes the technical excellence of the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) design, development status, and the scientific plans foreseen by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for deep space tracking, radio science, and related scientific opportunities such as near-Earth objects (NEO) and space debris monitoring. SRT, when functioning as a ground tracking station, will eventually provide operational support to spacecraft at four frequencies simultaneously: X-band uplink and downlink as well as Ka-band uplink and downlink. In order to pursue all of its space science objectives, ASI is also considering an agreement with the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics to share a quota of the observing time of the other smaller Italian radio telescopes at Medicina and Noto, where many successful experiments have been conducted with the Ulysses and Cassini missions as well as many other encounters and detections.