Establishing requirements for lunar and cislunar orbital debris tracking

Abstract

There is a need to formally coordinate lunar and cislunar space traffic management to mitigate the risk of collisions with micrometeoroids and orbital debris in this space domain. To control this hazard, it will be critical to develop a high-fidelity orbital debris catalog. This catalog will be maintained by monitoring and propagating the trajectory of objects. The need to perform a debris avoidance maneuver for collision avoidance will depend on the fidelity of the propagated debris trajectory. A larger uncertainty (magnitude as a function of time) will require a larger maneuver and a higher likelihood of the need to perform this maneuver. This study assesses debris avoidance maneuvers and corresponding corrective actions to recover the desired mission trajectory as a way to evaluate the desired capability of tracking of objects in lunar and cislunar orbit. The baseline Earth-to-Moon trajectory was that of the Artemis I mission. Typical conjunction assessments were postulated at 100,000 km from Earth's center (approximately a quarter of the way to the moon) and at lunar orbit insertion (LOI). For these two cases, the required debris avoidance maneuver (and hence impact to the mission) is tied to the uncertainty in orbital debris tracking. The study provides a methodology and baseline inputs to establish future requirements of debris tracking in lunar and cislunar orbits. It also reinforces the importance of long-term sustainability for lunar missions, specifically preventing the generation of orbital debris.