Assessment of orbital debris size estimation from radar cross-section measurements Original Research Article

MIT Lincoln Laboratory has conducted a measurement program for man-made orbital debris since 1991 in response to NASAʹs need to characterize the orbital debris population and facilitate manned spaceflight activities. The primary sensors used in that effort are the Haystack and Haystack auxiliary (HAX) radars located at the Lincoln space surveillance complex (LSSC) in Westford, Massachusetts. This paper will describe the results from a new effort conducted at LSSC, the objective of which is to assess the variability in NASAʹs current procedure for determination of size from radar data. RCS data have been acquired on 39 NASA-selected resident space objects (RSO). Results are also compared to the size estimates from the FPS-85 radar, an asset of the Space Surveillance Network.