Abstract

Growing activities in the Earth–Moon system are increasing the need for robust space situational awareness (SSA) in cislunar space, where large distances and varying illumination make continuous observation of spacecraft challenging. This paper numerically compares visible (VIS) and infrared (IR) sensors for cislunar SSA by modeling targets on Lyapunov and Halo orbits in the Earth–Moon circular restricted three‑body problem and simulating observations from four space‑based observers. Results show that VIS sensors provide high‑accuracy position estimates when illumination is favorable, but their signal‑to‑noise ratio (SNR) strongly depends on Sun–target–observer geometry, causing loss of observability along parts of the orbits and on certain days. In contrast, thermal IR sensors achieve lower spatial accuracy yet maintain more stable SNR across dates and can observe targets that are not detectable in …

Date

2026

Authors

Shinsuke Takahashi, David Barnhart

Book

ASCEND 2026

Pages

3092