A Commercial Framework for Assessing Cislunar Mission Activities and Opportunities

Several nations including a commercial company have operated spacecraft in cislunar space, and to the Moon, and more are planning to do the same. There are many types of trajectories that these missions use, from direct transfers to complex ones utilizing the gravity of the Sun and Moon. In addition, some missions use high-thrust chemical engines, others low-thrust solar electric, and some propose hybrid architectures. Cislunar missions provide opportunities for monitoring, communication, and navigation. Their chaotic nature from lunar and solar effects make some cislunar trajectories ideal responsive orbits, enabling relatively quick relocation with minimal propellant. These same opportunities make the trajectories hard to monitor and therefore could pose a threat to US spacecraft in geosynchronous and other orbits. We propose creating an analytical framework to be used by decision makers and analysts to systematically assess and guide decision making about the opportunities and threats of planned and actual cislunar missions. This framework is based on commercial methods, training packages, analysis, and tools that we have used ourselves to review, design, analyze, and operate numerous cislunar and lunar satellite missions. This framework is designed to support quick assessment without the need for subject matter experts.