The BIT statement said the project would enable China to maintain its leading position in the field of deep space technology “for a long time”.
“The project will provide important support for China’s ongoing near-Earth asteroid monitoring and defence system established by the China National Space Administration, as well as other planetary science research,” it said.
Long Teng, President of the Beijing Institute of Technology, speaks at the launch ceremony for the second phase of the China Compound Eye space radar project in Chongqing. Photo: Beijing Institute of Technology
The project is divided into three phases, with the first consisting of four radars that were switched on in December 2022 and created the world’s first three-dimensional map of the lunar surface based on distributed radar.
The success of the initial radars, each with a 16-metre (52.4 feet) aperture, verified the feasibility of the system and some of its key technologies.
“It meets national needs, including near-Earth asteroid defence and space situational awareness,” the BIT said.
Stage two is expected to be completed in 2025, when the installation will boast 25 radars with apertures of 30 metres (98.4 feet).
“After completion of the second phase, the third phase will expand radar numbers to above 100, and expand the boundaries of human’s deep space exploration with radar,” the BIT said.
“The project will provide support for the world’s cutting-edge scientific research such as habitability of earth and planet formation.”
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China’s Shenzhou 15 astronaut crew complete their first spacewalk
Eventually, the China Compound Eye will have an unparalleled detection range of 150 million km (93 million miles), capable of high-precision observation and imaging of distant asteroids and celestial bodies like the moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter.
Unlike China’s FAST (Five hundred metre Aperture Spherical radio Telescope) installation – the largest of its kind in the world – in Guizhou province, the China Compound Eye works like a bat’s sonar system by emitting electromagnetic waves and receiving their echoes.
Multiple-aperture, deep-space detection radars are combined into a single large antenna during operation, in a similar way to an insect’s compound vision.
While the power of a single radar is limited, the power superposition between them makes ultra-long range detection possible.
The FAST telescope receives radio signals from targets thousands of light years away, but the China Compound Eye – an “ultra-large distributed aperture radar high-resolution deep space active observation facility” – will be able to clearly record asteroids approaching the Earth without distortions from light or clouds.
The China Compound Eye will act as a surveillance camera on space, able to detect objects that may pose a threat to satellites or space stations early enough for them to be destroyed or avoided.
