Abstract
Human-made space fairing has created active payloads and space debris not only in the near-Earth region, but also to an increasing number in the cislunar region. Detecting and keeping track of objects poses a significant challenge. Even when objects are initially known, active objects might maneuver at unknown times. In the multi-body regime they might end up in In this talk, the astrodynamics in the cislunar region is explored using the circular restricted three body and the bi-circular restricted four body problem to find key region objects travel through. In a second step, optimization for optical sensor locations is shown for keeping custody of maneuvering objects in the cislunar region. Because of the large distances the optical observations are non-resolved. When seeking knowledge beyond the center of mass of objects, light curves, brightness variations over time might be used. The talk shows some recent developments in the mathematical framework of light curve inversion for the characterization of the object shapes.
Bio
Prof. Frueh is the Harold DeGroff Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue. She is the director of the Purdue Optical Ground Station, and the chair of the International Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Panel on Potentially Environmentally Detrimental Activities in Space (PEDAS). Dr. Frueh’s research and expertise is in Space Domain Awareness in the near-Earth and Cislunar space, including the detection of new and tracking of known objects, orbit determination, sensor tasking, GNC, and the characterization of space objects beyond their center of mass in the near and far field.