”China Compound Eye”: Distributed Aperture Radar System for Deep Space Exploration

Abstract:
Ground-based radar for deep space exploration is a main approach for studying celestial bodies such as the moon, near- Earth asteroids, etc. It can be used to obtain the orbit, rotation, topography, composition, and other characteristics of the celestial bodies, which is of great importance for studying the formation and evolution of the solar system. This paper introduces a distributed aperture radar system for deep space exploration - "China Compound Eye". "China Compound Eye" adopts a distributed aperture architecture, which can realize the observation of the moon and other deep space targets under the case of lower transmit power and smaller antenna aperture for each single radar unit, and provides a reliable approach for observing the deep space target. Proceedings and experimental results of "China Compound Eye" are also introduced, involving coherent signal processing with distributed aperture, lunar two-dimensional (2-D) imaging and lunar three-dimensional (3-D) imaging. In these experiments, images of lunar south pole area are acquired, and these image can provide terrain information for the lunar south pole. In the future, the complement of "China Compound Eye" will promote the development in the field of ground-based radar deep space exploration.