Bistatic geometry + orbit adapters
Geometry, OEM, GP-element, Satcat, and live-client refusal contracts exist in source and tests.
LOADING CATALOGUE …
Project Arden · mission instrument
Turn signals of opportunity into a passive observatory—then refuse every detection the geometry, receiver, and evidence cannot support.
0CATALOGUED0DETECTED BY ARDEN
Open mission consoleWhat you are looking at
Starlink, on-orbit, from a Satcat export. These are published mean element sets — not Arden measurements. The catalogue is a frozen download, so every arc grows as its elements age; objects past 24 h are drawn stale.
What Arden has detected: none
Space Radar has never detected an object. Two-channel Ku capture and target detection are NOT ESTABLISHED; no capture, cancellation result, detection or refined orbit is claimed. The glow reserved for a detection is defined and unused, so the zero above reads as none found rather than not built.
Why arcs, not dots
Each object is drawn as the arc it could be anywhere on. The length is this page’s own propagator disagreeing with the reference model, measured — not a decoration.
| Propagator | mean elements + J2 secular |
| Along‑track | — |
| Plane | — |
The plane holds to under half a kilometre a day out, so the orbit may be drawn. The phase along it drifts, so it may not — that is the arc.
What the arc is not
It is not the uncertainty of where the object actually is. Satcat publishes no covariance for these element sets, so that number does not exist here. The arc is a floor — the disagreement we can measure — never a confidence interval. The propagator is mean elements with J2 secular rates, which is not SGP4.
The clock, and why it starts ahead of now
This page opens at ×60, and that is a simulated clock — not now. It opens there because ×1 is true and unwatchable: an orbit takes 91.5 min, so an object crosses 0.25–0.37 px per second depending on your screen — one pixel every three or four seconds. The clock beside the rate buttons carries the rate and how far ahead of real time it has run, from the first frame — and×1 puts it back on real time. Arcs lengthen as you run forward, because the elements get older.
Mission console
01 ILLUMINATOR02 TARGET VOLUME03 ARDEN RXPASSIVE BISTATIC · RECEIVE ONLY
REFUSES A target, range, orbit update, or live-track claim without a real two-channel capture and its controls.
CURRENT EVIDENCE LEDGER
Geometry, OEM, GP-element, Satcat, and live-client refusal contracts exist in source and tests.
The engine computes ceilings and failure gates from declared inputs. It is not a measured receiver result.
The adapter contract is pinned. A live partner response is still required before operational claims.
No coherent Ku reference/surveillance capture, cancellation result, detection, or refined orbit is claimed.
CHEAPEST FALSIFIER FIRST
Keep geometry, link budget, and refusal thresholds reproducible in source.
Observe one downlink receive-only; establish pointing, band, polarization, and clock lineage.
Capture reference and surveillance channels on one shared receiver clock.
Measure direct-path cancellation against real clutter before buying wider bandwidth.
Only after the controls pass: admit a target candidate with uncertainty and provenance.
Inspect the chain
Source-tested bistatic geometry and refusal contracts.
↗02Feasibilityarden_core.spacewatchSimulation-tier link budget and direct-path cancellation gate.
↗03Partner boundaryKayhan contractA gated adapter contract; live verification remains separate.
↗04Receive chainKu front endDesign and procurement gates only; no hardware proof.
↗The mission contract
See the signal. Measure the geometry. Prove the receiver. Then—and only then—admit the object.