Cislunar space and lunar surface surveillance capabilities of butterfly orbits using the CR3BP

With NASA’s plan to return humans to the Moon via the Artemis program and SpaceX’s planned Mars mission, which includes using the Moon as a spaceport for large payloads, there will be an increasing demand to identify, track, and monitor Resident Space Objects (RSOs) and provide cislunar disposal routes for RSOs in cislunar and lunar space. This research investigates the practicality of various satellite maneuvers between orbits chosen from the northern and southern butterfly (BN/BS) and dragonfly (DN/DS) orbit families. Several simulated trajectories are compared to show the feasibility of performing a maneuver in cislunar and lunar space between the L 1 and L 2 Lagrange points. In addition, lunar surface surveillance capabilities of BN and BS orbits were evaluated, with this research analyzing several BN and BS orbits and the proficiency of four commercial satellite optical sensors for lunar surveillance missions.