Peter Zimmer, J.T. McGraw and Associates, LLC ; John T. McGraw, J.T. McGraw & Associates, LLC; Mark R. Ackermann, J.T. McGraw and Associates, LLC;
Keywords: cislunar, SSA, SDA, lander, optics, surface, moon, telescope
Abstract:
In the coming years, renewed lunar exploration by the U.S., our allies, and our adversaries will transform the cislunar regime into a new strategic operations domain one that is no longer uncontested. Surveillance of this domain is challenging; the radars and global telescope networks that maintain our current space domain awareness (SDA) are not designed to cover this enlarged volume of space, and at present, self-reported mission telemetry is the primary source of object data. This situation is fraught even for assets of allied and friendly nations, let alone from geopolitical adversaries.
Large, ground-based instruments can cover much of the cislunar volume, which extends from geostationary orbit to beyond the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange point, 12 times farther away than geostationary orbit. Systems like this are multi-million-dollar facilities, subject to all the issues faced by ground-based telescopes including nighttime operations, geographic coverage, weather, and especially scattered moonlight. Sky brightness near the Moon makes detecting faint objects close to the Moon exceedingly difficult, even for the largest ground-based systems.
From the lunar surface, this region is much easier to surveil, especially the volumes around the Moon itself, the far side around L2, and between the Earth and the Moon. The challenge instead is deploying and operating a telescope there. Fortunately, the new activity in cislunar space also offers new opportunities. NASAs Commercial Lander Payload Service (CLPS) program is developing standardized platforms for instruments on the lunar surface, paralleling the cubesat revolution currently transforming near-Earth space. This means specialized billion-dollar, decade-spanning missions are no longer required.
The CLPS program presents a tremendous opportunity for deploying small, wide-field optical telescopes on the lunar surface. The first versions of these will have to be based on optics, detectors and processing systems that already have a heritage in space. There are a large number of optical systems already in space, but only a few are pointed away from the Earth, and most of them would not be a good match for the cislunar SDA mission. The right combination of these could be deployed rapidly and inexpensively on early CLPS missions so far, the selected instruments only look down at the lunar surface. A small optical telescope, appropriately optimized, could demonstrate the immense value of cislunar SDA from the lunar surface, while at the same time contribute to several other scientific missions.
Date of Conference: September 14-17, 2021
Track: Cislunar SSA