Lunar Sentinel

Advanced Space and partner AstronetX envision a future constellation of spacecraft at the Moon in low lunar orbits (LLO) and/or an array of telescopes at Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) landing sites that provide close-approach risk assessment of spacecraft at the Moon. This vision is called Lunar Sentinel. In our strategic mission concept, our team aims to optimize the use of space-based sensors to provide metric observations of non-transmitting spacecraft and cooperative assets orbiting the Moon. The primary goal of this proposed effort is to provide space situational awareness (SSA) for the growing cislunar market and to prevent collision events at the Moon. The collaboration proposed here is our plan to de-risk vital technical elements of the Lunar Sentinel mission concept for NASA. Advanced Space is the prime contractor for the Oracle-P mission for AFRL/RV, which is the first step toward SSA stationed at the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 1 (EML1). Additionally, Advanced Space owns and operates the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE™) mission with NASA STMD funding, which has provided strategic lessons learned in cislunar operations, navigation, and communications. AstronetX currently has a Phase III contract with AFRL/RV to mature their Lunar-Cam (L-CAM) space-based sensor to be hosted on commercial orbiters and lunar landers to provide unique size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) efficient optical tracking data services. This team and the collective vision for the proposed effort are designed to prove out key capabilities necessary to make the Lunar Sentinel mission architecture an effective reality: specifically, the framework for an accurate SSA system capable of detecting, tracking, and maintaining custody of multiple non-transmitting spacecraft through high-resolution, rapid imagery enabled by precision position, navigation, and timing (PNT) capabilities.