• Planetary Surfaces

  - range <=1.5 AU (inner solar system and  Moon; no Venus) 

  - orbital velocity up to 60 km/s during tracking

  - sub-meter to meters down to 100s meter resolution

Example: GBT prototype-VLBA (Ku multistatic) observation - Tycho crater’s floor polygonal structures at 5 m/pixel, penetration depth of 10x𝝺 ~20 cm.

 

• Planetary Structure and Spin Studies 

  - range <=1.5 AU (inner solar system; Venusthreshold i.e. `Radar speckle tracking’ X band (3.5 cm, 8.56 GHz)

  - orbital velocity up to 60 km/s during tracking

  - non-imaging

Example: GSSR DSS14 -GBT (X multistatic) - Venus’ radar echoes detected at two stations which occasionally lie in the plane of Venus’ equator (Sept 8, 2020 -  J. Margot et al. 2021).

 

• Near-Earth Objects (NEO’s) and Comets 

   - range <= 0.3 AU

   - orbital velocity up to 42 km/s during tracking 

   - time critical/turn-around response

  - meter to submeter resolution

Example: GSSR DSS-14-GBT (X bistatic) 2003 SD220 > 2 km long, rotation period ~12 days, resolution is 3.75 m/pixel

 

Disclaimer:  Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), or other funding agencies.