Channing Chow, Cloudstone Innovations LLC; Charles J. “Jack” Wetterer, Pacific Defense Solutions, A Centauri Company; Keric Hill, Pacific Defense Solutions, A Centauri Company; Claire Gilbert, Pacific Defense Solutions, A Centauri Company; David Buehler, AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate; James Frith, AFRL/RVSW;
Keywords: cislunar, periodic orbit, space domain awareness, observation, CHPS
Abstract:
Orbits of objects in cislunar space are non-Keplerian due to the influence of the Moons gravity and cannot be generically parameterized by a simple set of characteristics. Objects are also fainter and move relatively more slowly when viewed from the Earth; both detection and tracking are expected to be significantly more difficult. In this paper we review a subset of possible orbits and their expected astrometric and photometric signatures from the perspective of hypothetical ground-based sensors on the Earth and Moon. Although a multitude of orbits are possible, we focus on special types of orbits that are closed in the synodic frame (i.e., periodic) and emanate from the libration points (stationary equilibria of the circular restricted three-body problem). We investigate 31 separate families of elemental periodic orbits (Doedel et al., 2007), each of which are smooth manifolds. For each family, we generate a span of representative synodic positions and velocities and simulate the expected observational features (e.g., right ascension, declination, visual magnitude) based on faceted satellite models. In this study, we hope to build a better intuition on how remote sensing will work for spacecraft in cislunar space, to support next-generation sensor architectures including space-based experiments such as AFRLs Cislunar Highway Patrol System (CHPS) concept.
Date of Conference: September 15-18, 2020
Track: Astrodynamics