Time-Frequency analysis for feature extraction of rotating resident space objects : an experimental test

Space safety is nowadays a really urgent topic to be addressed. The population of objects created by explosion, fragmentation and collision events needs to be characterized carefully in order effectively enable Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre (CAM) and Active Debris Removal (ADR). The joint use of time-frequency analysis and inverse Radon transform have a great potential for estimating rotating space object parameters. This potential has already been confirmed through simulation. In this paper, we present experimental results that further validate the proposed parameter estimation technique. Such experiments have been conducted in a laboratory by using a K-band FMCW radar and a small turntable.