Abstract: Modeling and analysis of space target's optical scattering characteristics are the premise and foundation of the demonstration, design and performance evaluation of space optical surveillance system. The visible and laser scattering characteristics of space object were emphatically focuced in this paper, and the basic research contents and methods were discussed. The typical BRDF models of satellite's surface materials were introduced firstly, then the advances of foreign and domestic typical researches were introduced from three respects including surface materials' BRDF measurement and modeling, satellite's visible scattering characteristics measurement and calculating, and satellite's LRCS measurement and calculating. At last, the development orientation was put forward, which could provide references for the next research thinking and methods.