Disposal, Deployment, and Debris in Near Rectilinear Halo Orbits

A proposed Gateway facility in a lunar Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) will serve as an outpost in deep space, with spacecraft periodically arriving and departing. Departing objects will include logistics modules, requiring safe disposal, cubesats, deployed to various destinations, and debris objects, whose precise paths may be unknown. Escape dynamics from NRHOs are complex; primarily influenced by the Earth and Moon within the orbit, spacecraft are significantly impacted by solar gravity upon departure. The current investigation explores the dynamics of departure from the NRHO, including the risk of debris recontact, safe heliocentric disposal, and deployment to select destinations