Abstract: In order to make the lidar images of space target indicating its active state in orbit as real as possible, combined with the information of the detector parameters in orbit, a lidar imaging simulation method for complex space target was proposed in this article. A visibility algorithm based on the area method was presented. Firstly, the method which was used to simulate the lidar imaging was explained in detail. Then, the method was used to simulate the lidar imaging of a simple cube cabin. The emulation results show that the method was feasible to simulate the lidar imaging of the space target, which has significance for the researches of target detection, recognition and tracking techniques.