Preliminary Study to Enhance the Capability of Space Surveillance using Ground-based Radar at GISTDA

Space debris can cause severe damage to satellites orbiting the Earth, especially in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), where most debris resides. GISTDA has developed the space traffic management (STM) system known as “ZIRCON” to protect the current operational Earth Observation satellite known as Thaichote and the upcoming two next-generation satellites from the threats. This STM could be operated sustainably and securely by introducing space surveillance monitoring (SSM) into the system. This paper presents a preliminary study to assess the feasibility for developing a ground-based SSM radar at GISTDA. The study was made by design the system, comprising the antennas and RF equipment and then evaluate its performance. The system performance was presented in terms of received power and revealed the potential that some space object size could be detectable. Finally, the feasibility and approaches to the following steps have been discussed.