Earth to Perform Asteroid 'Flyby', Radar imaging Options

[Toma B]

Asteroid 'Flyby' This Fall

In the text above it clearly says: "The best resolution of the radar images was 7.5 meters [25 feet] per pixel , when the asteroid was about 2.3 million kilometers away from Earth back in April 2010." Than it says that "When 2005 YU55 returns this fall the asteroid will be seven times closer. We're expecting some very detailed radar images. "When 2005 YU55 returns this fall, we intend to image it at 4-meter resolution with our recently upgraded equipment at the Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California." [/quote]

So where is that upgrade?!?

When imaging from 2,300,000 Km res= 7.5 m/pix
When imaging from 325,000 Km res= 4 m/pix

I just don't get it. If there was no "upgrade" resolution should be about 1 m/pix this time because asteroid is 7 times closer!

Can anybody understand/explain this?

[Holder of the Tw...]

The transmitted frequency is kept steady. Held to painfully tight tolerances, too.

I might mention here that the asteroid will move into Arecibo's line of sight very shortly before (but not during) closest approach on November 8th. Joint (bistatic) observations are planned with Goldstone, followed by stand alone studies through the 19th.

HOWEVER.....

Here is a list of the results of all asteroids schedueled for radar at Aricebo from November last year up to today:

2010 Nov - 2002 VE68 - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2564.
2010 Dec - 2006 VB14 - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2564
2010 Dec - 2010 JL33 - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2595
2010 Dec - (207945) 1991 JW - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2595
2010 Dec - 2005 GC120 - Requested but not scheduled. R2564.
2010 Dec - (16) Psyche - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2563.
2010 Dec - (337) Devosa - Cancelled due to transmitter problems R2563.
2011 Jan - (554) Peraga - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2313
2011 Jan - (7) Iris - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2313
2011 Jan - 2000 BD19 - Requested.
2011 Jan - 1998 HE3 - Requested but not scheduled.
2011 Feb - (153201) 2000 WO107 - Requested but not scheduled.
2011 Feb - 2001 CQ36 - Cancelled due to equipment problems. R2591
2011 Feb - 2000 EF104 - Cancelled due to equipment problems. R2591
2011 Feb - 2003 YG118 - Cancelled due to equipment problems. R2591
2011 Mar - (516) Amherstia - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2603
2011 Mar - 1999 TK12 - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2591
2011 Mar - 2009 FY4 - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2591
2011 Mar - 2005 EY169 - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2591
2011 Mar - (23187) 2000 PN9 - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2591
2011 Mar - 2005 ES70 - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2591
2011 Mar - (3554) Amun - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2591
2011 Mar - (11885) Summanus - Requested but not scheduled. R2591
2011 Apr - (85953) 1999 FK21 - Requested but not scheduled. R2591
2011 Apr - 2008 EY5 - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2591
2011 Apr - 2004 XN50 - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2591
2011 Apr - 1997 US9 - Requested but not scheduled. R2591
2011 Apr - 2003 FF5 - Requested but not scheduled. R2591
2011 Apr - 2001 AD2 - Cancelled due to transmitter problems. R2591
2011 Apr - 2004 QT24 - Cancelled due to equipment problems. R2591
2011 Apr - 2008 FU6 - Requested but not scheduled. R2591
2011 May - (141484) 2002 DB4 - Requested but not scheduled. R2591
2011 May - (164121) 2003 YT1 - Cancelled due to equipment problems. R2591. BINARY
2011 May - 2007 TB23 - Cancelled due to equipment problems. R2591
2011 May - 2003 AL73 - Cancelled due to equipment problems. R2591

I'm a little bit concerned here.