Planetary Exploration
Originally envisioned as an uplink experiment with high-powered transmitters on Earth providing illumination, planetary bistatic radar needed a spacecraft receiver either in orbit or flying nearby to sample and record echo signals reflected from the target. The radio data could then be returned in the spacecraft science telemetry stream along with camera images, infrared spectra, magnetic held measurements, and other data acquired at or around the same time. Unfortunately, the added costs associated with uplink spacecraft radio instrumentation and the scheduling conflicts introduced by adding another investigation with unique attitude requirements (pointing the spacecraft antenna toward the planet) have largely relegated bistatic radar to add-on or piggyback status - an experiment of opportunity, which more readily could be conducted in a downlink configuration using existing hardware.
Planetary Exploration, Page 1 of 2
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