In today’s space environment, cislunar space is the ultimate high ground. As activity moves beyond GEO, building awareness in cislunar space is critical, and technologies like data sharing and timing synchronization will be key to keeping space safe and secure.
Elvis Silva, Executive Director of Business Development and Strategy at Blue Canyon Technologies, RTX’s smallsat manufacturer, sat down with us to explain the importance of cislunar infrastructure.
Listen to the full podcast conversation, or read our top four takeaways below.
Takeaway 1: Cislunar space is a critical domain.
For commercial players, interest in the cislunar domain has been growing, including for resource prospecting on the moon, as well as commercial companies sending payloads to the lunar surface. But more pressing reason for growth in cislunar space is due to national security needs.
“From a national perspective, there’s strategic importance to the moon and the area around it,” Silva said. “It is the ultimate high ground, effectively, for space domain presence.” This is especially true in a world with emerging space competition from other countries, such as China.
There are also pressing defense implications. “We have a lot of assets out in GEO,” Silva said, “and there’s also national assets in deep space.” By building better infrastructure in cislunar space, the ability to see and defend assets in deep space and GEO is improved. “Space domain awareness is key to space power,” he said.
Takeaway 2: Monitoring and tracking objects in cislunar space is difficult.
Due to the lack of infrastructure in cislunar space, it’s currently very difficult to accurately track any objects.
“If you think about space around Earth, we have GEO satellites that handle GPS,” Silva said. “None of that infrastructure is present in the moon. You have to do different things to be able to get position velocity locks on spacecraft,” he said, or even just to have a clear awareness of what is happening in cislunar space.
Also complicating the equation is the fact that orbital mechanics are different in cislunar space. Satellites in orbit of Earth follow well-known patterns. But as you get further away, complications arise—“you start getting third party perturbations, and the orbital mechanics fall apart a little bit,” Silva said.
Another issue is the vastness of cislunar space. “Things can go undetected for a long period of time,” he said. “You have to put a little bit more rigor into how you monitor that space.” Because of the sheer amount of space, the ability to effectively cover it with sensors will likely always be sparse.
“You have poor custody of objects,” Silva said. “Sometimes you lose things.”
Takeaway 3: Building effective infrastructure in cislunar space will require on-board data processing.
On-board data processing will be a critical part of the cislunar economy, Silva said. By conducting processing on board the spacecraft, the time to action is drastically cut down, as data doesn’t have to move back and forth between Earth and the spacecraft.
“Deep space has a delay associated with how fast data gets back and forth,” Silva said. “The main goal is to be able to reduce latency between what these sensors are collecting, and what sensors are making out of what’s going on in deep space.” Allowing this type of processing to happen on board the spacecraft will also allow the spacecraft to make certain decisions autonomously and on a more efficient timeline.
Takeaway 4: Technologies like autonomous sensing and data from multiple sensors will be crucial.
On-board data processing will rely on superior track accuracy, which will “integrate data from multiple sensors,” Silva said. “[This] allows you more accurate and resilient space object tracking,” which will allow the spacecraft to track an object in real-time as the sensors are collecting data.
By combining data from multiple sources, a more cohesive picture of cislunar space comes together. This includes visual sensors, infrared, and RF data. “These are different things that you can leverage to be able to improve observations of things out in deep space,” Silva said.
Technologies used onboard these cislunar spacecraft will also need to be capable of autonomous sensing. This includes “adaptive testing and prioritization,” Silva said. “For example, programming your spacecraft so that you can prioritize what kind of actions you’re taking on that data, and how you’re using that data to make decisions effectively on-board.”
For more on AgileSat, on-board computing and national security, listen to the full episode.
Explore More:
The Next Space Race – Establishing Capabilities in Cislunar Space
Podcast: AI, Spacecraft Autonomy and Space Data for Humanity
Space ISAC Eyes Cislunar Space for Cyber Preparedness
