This document summarizes the required actions leading up to the test of southern hemisphere assets for bistatic radar observations. The three targets are the Moon, 2005 UL5 and 1998 WT24.

The transmitter will be the 100 kW S-band transmitter on DSS-43 (Tid). The receiver will be the Parkes Radio Telescope, outfitted with the so-called Galileo receiver. The current plan is that the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) will shadow the observations. All transmissions will be CW only.

Last update: 2015 Sep 29

Notional Schedule

Approximate window of opportunity for Parkes/Galileo RX to be available is November 12--December 11.

September 15 (NLT)

Equipment Change Request (ECR) to move PRSR from CDSCC to Parkes provisionally approved; awaiting final approval (Larry Teitelbaum)

October 15 (NLT)

Confirm that there are no import-export issues in sharing data with R. Boyce (UNSW); awaiting final determination from JPL I/ECO (Larry Teitelbaum)

TBD

Develop pointing predicts; use planetary mode and provide 3-point predicts. (Jon Giorgini)

October 20 (TBC)

PRSR is shipped from CDSCC to Parkes (past experience suggests 1 week to ship)

• CDSCC POC: Steve March
• ATNF POC: Mal Smith, Phil Edwards

October 30 (NLT)

Software developed to convert the PRSR data format into a format that standard GSSR processing routines can read. (Chuck Naudet)

October 31

DSS-43 uplink test; DSN POCs: Marty Slade and George Martinez

The following track has been tentatively scheduled on DSS-43 in week 44.  The track was requested 

to prepare for the upcoming S-band demos at CDSSC.

2015 October 31 (Day Of Year 304):

DOY BOA  BOT  EOT  EOA

304 1640 1725 2140 2200  DSS-43  GSSR   SBAND CONFIG         

November 9

Parkes/Galileo RX is mounted, weather permitting

November TBD

Conduct test of PRSR to ensure that an injected tone is recovered correctly (Chuck Naudet (TBC))

November 12

Moon bounce test, target is Tycho crater (plan: 2 hr scheduling block, includes 45 min. pre-cal and 20 min. post-cal)

    
      DOY START BOT  EOT  END FACILITY USER   ACTIVITY
      316 2345 0030 0230 0250  DSS-43  GSSR   MOON BOUNCE 
    

• TBD (JPL Radio Science Systems Group) will run PRSR at Parkes
• TBD transfers data to JPL
• Joseph Jao and Clement Lee conduct analysis, report whether Moon is detected

November 15

Moon bounce test, target is Tycho crater (plan: 2 hr scheduling block, includes 45 min. pre-cal and 20 min. post-cal)

    
      DOY START BOT  EOT  END FACILITY USER   ACTIVITY
      319 2335 0020 0220 0240  DSS-43  GSSR   MOON BOUNCE 
    

• TBD (JPL Radio Science Systems Group) will run PRSR at Parkes
• TBD (JPL Radio Science Systems Group) transfers data to JPL
• Joseph Jao and Clement Lee conduct analysis, report whether Moon is detected

November 19-22

2005 UL5 flyby (plan: 4 h scheduling block + calibration)

Estimated 2005 UL5 signal-to-noise ratios: The numbers below assume P_TX = 100 kW and horizons at Parkes = 30 deg. We also assumed a rotation period of 2.1 hours, a diameter of 0.32 km, a radar albedo of 0.1, and an equatorial view. A precise rotation period may become available from new lightcurve observations shortly before the radar tracks.

start date	window	RA, Dec	Distance	SNR/RTT
2015 Nov 18	1440-2235	125, -04	0.023	1
2015 Nov 19-20	1615-0115	157, -10	0.016	4
2015 Nov 20-21	1900-0355	200, -12	0.018	5
2015 Nov 21-22	2050-0510	224, -10	0.026	1

Goldstone observations are scheduled on November 18, one day before the DSS-43/Parkes test, and should clarify the bistatic S-band S/N ratios and Doppler broadening we can expect. S-band observations are also likely at Arecibo on multiple days up to and including November 17. We are expecting an S-band Doppler broadening of roughly 4 Hz.

      DSS-43 Schedule
      UT       UT          PST               Round-trip
DOY   Date     TX Window   TX Window         time (sec)  SNR/RTT
323   Nov 19   1800-2200   1000-1400 Nov 19     16          4
326   Nov 22   0115-0505   1715-2105 Nov 21     26          1   The SNRs on Nov. 22 may be too weak for a detection.
      

December 8-10 (TBC)

1998 WT24 flyby (plan: 4 hr scheduling block + calibration)

The numbers below assume P_TX = 100 kW and horizons at Parkes = 30 deg. We also assumed a rotation period of 3.7 hours, a diameter of 0.42 km, a radar albedo of 0.2, and an equatorial view. We are expecting an S-band Doppler broadening of about 3 Hz.

start date	window	RA, Dec	Distance	SNR/RTT
2015 Dec 10	1005-1645	69, +2	0.029	2
2015 Dec 11	0930-1600	59, +3	0.028	2
2015 Dec 12	0855-1510	50, +5	0.028	2
2015 Dec 13	0815-1425	41, +6	0.029	2

1998 WT24 Tracks scheduled at DSS-43:
DOY  Date    BOA  BOT  EOT  EOA   SNR/RTT
342  Dec 08  1410 1455 1810 1830    1
343  Dec 09  1015 1100 1455 1515    1
344  Dec 10  1105 1150 1520 1540    2

Horizons = 20 deg at DSS-43 and 30.5 deg at Parkes.