Feasibility Study of a Future Korean Space Telescope

According to the Korean government's Long-term Space Development Plan 2040, "Creative space science research" is included in a statement to investigate the origin and evolution of the universe by conducting a series of Korean space telescope missions: launch of space telescopes on a small satellite and an international collaboration explorer by 2020, a mid-size domestic space telescope by 2030, and a large size Korea leading international space telescope by 2040. We studied the feasibility of the future Korean Space Telescope (KST) for a mid-size domestic satellite platform. In order to pursue the uniqueness of the science program, we consider a wide range of observing wavelength (0.2um ~ 2.0um) with a spectral resolution of R~6 in the NUV and optical bands, and R~30 for NIR, utilizing an off-axis TMS(Three Mirror System) optics with a wide field of view ($2{\times}4$ degrees) which is optimized for ultra-low surface brightness sources. The main science goals of the mission include investigations of the galaxy formation, cosmic web, and the cosmic background radiation in the NUV-NIR regions. In this paper, we present the science cases and several technical challenges to be resolved along with the future milestones for the success of the KST mission.