Efficient Commissioning of Cis-Lunar Constellations: The Role of the Lunar Staging Orbit (LSO)

As humanity's presence around the Moon expands, so too does the need for satellite infrastructure. This includes orbiting assets for communication, position, navigation, and timing (PNT), and space situational awareness (SSA). In order to ensure global coverage of the cis-lunar space a constellation of Spacecraft must work in tandem to provide the services needed for other missions to survive. The commissioning of these constellations is troublesome due to the relatively large maneuver required to insert into a lunar orbit and the large swath of phasing and spacing necessary to achieve the full coverage. The availability of heavy lift launch vehicles is greater than ever allowing the ability to launch multiple spacecraft at once. But coordinating each spacecraft within a constellation to perform the lunar orbit insertion burn (LOI) is complicated; especially prior to the establishment of the lunar infrastructure.

The proposed solution to this problem is an orbital transfer vehicle (OTV). An OTV thrives with delivering multiple payloads to multiple destinations that would otherwise require several individual launches and mission plans. Even so, the OTV has a limited capability so clever mission design solutions are necessary to maximize the mass delivered to multiple locations and still provide value to the payload customers. This paper defines the lunar staging orbit (LSO) as a method for an OTV to efficiently commission a constellation of eight communication spacecraft into four separate, elliptical frozen lunar orbits. The LSO utilizes the instability of the Earth-Moon dynamics to perform free changes in orbit parameters in a relatively short time frame of four months. The paper defines the parameters of the LSO as well as its benefits and drawbacks.