BEAM SYNCHRONIZATION AND COHERENCE TECHNIQUES FOR A DISTRIBUTED SPARSE ARRAY (DSA) OF SPACECRAFT

THE PROPOSED RESEARCH PROGRAM WILL DEFINE AND ANALYZE TECHNIQUES FOR MAINTAINING SYNCHRONIZATION AND COHERENCE OF A DISTRIBUTED SPARSE ARRAY (DSA), WILL IDENTIFY THE MOST PROMISING TECHNIQUE OR TECHNIQUES, AND WILL PROVIDE A PLAN FOR FURTHER EVALUATION AND DEMONSTRATION OF THE MOST PROMISING TECHNIQUES. THE ANALYSIS WILL RELATE THE PERFORMANCE OF THE SYNCHRONIZATION AND COHERENCE TECHNIQUES, IN TERMS OF THE LOSS OF GAIN AND OTHER ANTENNA-PATTERN DEGRADATIONS THEY ALLOW, TO THE STABILITY, ELEMENT LOCATION MEASUREMENT, AND DATA PROCESSING REQUIREMENTS THEY IMPOSE. THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE MOST PROMISING TECHNIQUES WILL BE BASED ON THE RESULTS OF THIS ANALYSIS, TOGETHER WITH AN ASSESSMENT OF THE TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS FOR IMPLEMENTING THE TECHNIQUES.