The “Ka-BOOM” NASA project is developing a way to use an array of small high-frequency Ka-band radar dishes to map “nearby asteroids, orbital space debris, water on the Moon and even rover-trapping sand pits on Mars” : NASA Developing Prototype Asteroid-mapping Radar at KSC – SpaceNews.com.

The project was unveiled during a recent visit by NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot to KSC: NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot Visits Space Coast and Meets With Media June 3-4 – NASA.

He briefed reporters

on the agency’s new asteroid initiative and NASA’s new Ka-Band Objects Observation and Monitoring (KaBOOM) system, a three-antenna test bed radar array at Kennedy.

NASA recently announced plans to find, study, capture and relocate an asteroid for exploration by astronauts. The asteroid initiative is a strategy to leverage human and robotic activities for a first human mission while accelerating efforts to improve detection and characterization of asteroids.

The goal of KaBOOM is to prove technologies that will allow future systems to characterize near-Earth objects in terms of size, shape, rotation/tumble rate and to determine the trajectory of those objects. Radar studies can determine the trajectory 100,000 times more precisely than can optical methods.

Current NASA radar systems are limited in both resolution and the distance at which they are effective. KaBOOM is the penultimate, low-cost step before proceeding with a high-power, high-resolution radar system. NASA expects this proof of concept to be completed in about two years.

Here is a local Florida TV news report about the project: NASA to launch KaBOOM system: new way to track asteroids – ClickOrlando.com – June.5.13