The Space Radar Gestra (German Experimental Space Surveillance and Tracking Radar) was inaugurated on Tuesday at his final location in the Bundeswehr Banden Schmidtenhohe near Koblenz. At the beginning of 2021 it should start its operational operation. "From here, the experimental radar will make a decisive contribution to securing our satellites in the earth-close space", Allowed Dr. Walther Pelzer, Board of the German Center for Aerospace (DLR).
Gestra consists of a transmitting and a receiving unit. With them, space objects can be detected in the low Erdorbit and measured their course. The measurement data will be sent to the German Space Station Center to UEDEM. There is a catalog that is around the clock over the "Location in all" and to inform possible hazards. So far, only US data is available for this.
Space Radar Gertra
Aerial view of Gestra
Garous in all
In all, several thousand satellites, spacecrafts and other objects on orbits romp between 300 and 3000 kilometers. In addition to outgoing satellites and rocket tops are also hundreds of thousands of small trummer. Satellites and other space infrastructure, such as the International Space Station, must therefore be observed static to avoid collisions. This completes Gertra with 256 individually electronically controllable transmit and receiving units.
The DLR space management has developed GESTRA with funds of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) from the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Technology (FHR) in Wachtberg in the past five years in the past. In recent months, Gestra was installed on Schmidthenhohe. In November 2019, Gestra had received first signals from space objects as part of tests at Fehr in Wachtberg. The Gestra operation is funded by the Federal Ministry of Defense. The project also serves as a prototype to specifically demand research for art space observations.
DLR explanatory film to space scrap