Spacecraft tracking

Radar tracking operations

Regular operational systems to monitor the southern skies where a percentage of asteroids and various human made objects are uniquely detectable from Australia’s geographic location, is desirable. The Southern Hemisphere Asteroid Radar Program (SHARP) was created to fill the gap by using Doppler-compensated radar tracking transmissions at 2114.0 MHz and 7159.45 MHz. SHARP uses available time on either 70-m and 34-m antenna located at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) to transmit continuous wave (CW) at 20 kW toward the NEO and receive the returning echoes at the Parkes or Autralia Telecope Compact Array (ATCA) from CSIRO. The University of Tasmania joined this observations in 2021 by utilising their broadband radio telescopes at Hobart (TAS) and Katherine (NT).

UTAS has participated in 17 different sessions tracking 30 Near-Earth-Objects (NEO) including human made objects to asteroids ranging in diameter from few meters to few km.