The OPOSSUM EML1 platform will act primarily as a satellite hosting platform at Earth-Moon Lagrange point 1. Satellites will be powered and serviced by the platform as well as utilize the onboard communications system. Furthermore, hosted satellites will rely on the OPOSSUM EML1 platform for stationkeeping. Host satellites will procure transportation to the OPOSSUM EML1 platform via a rideshare, where they will then be berthed with the OPOSSUM EML1 platform with a robotic arm system that will place the hosted satellites in their own port.These services will allow missions that require occupancy at EML1 to be drastically simpler than if each host satellite had to design independent communications, stationkeeping, and power production systems. The OPOSSUM EML1 station will lower the barrier to entry into the EML1 space from a large, expensive, complex satellite to a satellite on the order of a complexity as a cubesat. This will allow and encourage more scientific and commercial missions to make use out of the EML1 environment.
Additionally, the OPOSSUM EML1 platform will monitor Earth (or the Moon), providing a livestream back to scientists and the general public back on Earth. This will serve to inspire aspirational scientists and engineers and allow for enhanced outreach with the use of these materials. The OPOSSUM EML1 platform will also passively monitor resident space objects (RSOs) in cislunar space. This includes artificial satellites as well as near Earth objects. Cislunar space domain awareness is an increasingly important issue, with the US Space Force expressing interest in enhanced capabilities in this area. Finally, the OPOSSOM EML1 platform will also act as a communications relay from the lunar surface, amplifying and directing signals from weaker, simpler communication systems on the moon’s surface. This will enable more robust scientific and commercial capabilities on the surface of the moon.