• Current Industrial and Technological Trends in Aerospace
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.119-129
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• 2011

The soft landing of a lunar lander after the entrance of lunar orbit is an essential prerequisite for the accomplishment of the lander's lunar mission. During the landing process of a lunar lander, efficient shock absorption and stability maintenance are indispensible technology to protect payloads. Therefore, the landing gear is a crucial structural component of a lunar lander, it has to absorb the kinetic energy associated with touchdown and support the static load of the landing module in an upright position. In this paper, various landing gears of lunar landers which are being developed as well as which had been successfully landed on the moon surface are investigated. In the end, the Korean lunar lander, which is being designed for preliminary development model, is presented as an example of the lunar lander development.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.42 no.12
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• pp.1037-1044
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• 2014

In this study, we designed a drop test system considering lunar surface environment and tested landing gear of experimental lunar lander. The lunar lander would be landed at soil place for soft landing. When the lunar lander touches down, the acceleration of the lander is largely affected by mechanical characteristics of the lunar soil. Accordingly, a drop test using lunar soil is needed to verify the performance of the lunar landing gear. Because the lunar soil is not available generally, we developed a lunar simulant KAUMLS(Korea Aerospace University Mechanical Luna Simulant) based on mechanical properties of the lunar soil of NASA's LUNA PROJECT. In addition, drop tests on steel plate and dry sand are performed to evaluate impact characteristics by the surface environment.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.284-290
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• 2014

To successfully explore the moon by lunar lander, it is essential to guarantee the safe landing of lunar lander. Therefore, efficient shock absorption system of lunar lander should be designed in order to reduce landing impact force. Also, for more practical design of lunar lander, it is important to consider the effect of lunar regolith. In the line of thought, finite element model of lunar lander considering the effect of lunar regolith is developed. To reduce landing impact force, optimization of shock absorption system for lunar lander has been carried out. In optimization, sequential approximate optimization method based on meta-model is used. Through the result of optimization, it is verified that landing impact force on lunar lander can be efficiently reduced by the present optimization procedure.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.124-132
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• 2018

In this paper, landing stability evaluation of lunar lander considering various landing conditions was performed. The status of landing stability of the lunar lander is classified into stable landing, conditionally stable landing due to sliding and unstable landing due to tip-over. In particular, the quasi-static tip-over equation was rearranged considering the phenomena of lowering the center of gravity and extension of foot-pad interval of the landing gear. These results were compared by finite element model analysis results using a commercial software ABAQUS and its validity and accuracy were verified. The verified finite element model was used for examining the tendency of various environmental variables such as landing conditions, friction coefficient, lateral speed and slope of ground.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.196.2-196.2
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• 2012

본 논문은 달착륙선의 개념설계를 위하여 고려한 전력시스템의 설계와 달착륙선의 지상시험모델용 추력기 밸브구동 전원장치 개발에 대해 기술하였다. 달착륙선의 임무특성을 고려하여 전력시스템의 구조를 검토하고, 극한의 온도환경에서 달착륙선의 임무수행을 위하여 필요한 전력에너지를 충분히 공급할 수 있도록 태양전지 배열기와 배터리의 용량, 그리고 전장품의 용량을 설계하였다. 특히 경량의 달착륙선 개발을 위하여 고효율의 태양전지를 이용한 태양전지 배열기와 리튬-이온 배터리를 검토하였다. 극한의 우주환경에서 태양전지배열기의 동작특성을 검토하고 생성될 수 있는 최대 전력을 분석하여 최적의 태양전지 배열기의 면적을 분석하고, 장시간의 월식을 고려하여 배터리의 방전특성에 따른 배터리의 전압특성을 검토하였다. 그리고 달착륙선의 전력시스템 개념설계의 타당성 검토를 위하여 유럽에서 개념설계 중인 달착륙선의 전력시스템 사양과 용량에 대해 비교검토를 수행하였다. 현재 개발중인 지상검증모델용 달착륙선의 전력시스템 설계와 추력기 밸브구동 전원장치의 개발에 관해 기술하였다. 지상검증용 전력시스템은 태양전지배열기의 장착 없이 배터리의 전력만을 사용하여 지상검증모델용 달착륙선의 부하에 전력을 공급할 수 있도록 설계되었다. 달착륙선 지상시험모델의 비행시간과 임무에 따른 부하특성을 고려하여 상용 리튬-이온 배터리의 용량을 선정하였으며, 부하의 전력을 고려하여 간단한 보호회로를 설계하였다. 그리고 지상검증용 전원시스템은 추력기의 밸브구동을 위한 추력기 밸브구동 전원장치, DC/DC 컨버터 전원 모듈, 모니터링 모듈, 그리고 위급상황에서 전원을 차단하기 위한 "Emergency STOP" 모듈로 구성되어 있다.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.193.2-193.2
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• 2012

달착륙선 등과 같은 특수 목적을 위해 제작된 우주용 착륙선에는 착륙 시 전달되는 충격하중이 탑재장비로 전달되지 못하도록 연착륙(soft-landing)을 위한 충격흡수 메커니즘이 구현되어 있어야 한다. 일반적으로 자동차 및 항공기에서는 실린더와 피스톤으로 구성된 유공압식 완충장치를 주로 사용하여, 피스톤 압축으로 실린더 내부 오일 또는 압축공기가 오리피스를 통하여 분출됨에 따라 유체마찰 에너지를 활용한 충격 흡수장치가 일반적이다. 그러나 이와 같은 지상 장비용 유공압식 충격흡수 메커니즘은 진공 및 무중력 우주 환경하에서 오리피스 기능 상실, 유압유 기화 현상 및 극저온/고온 환경에서의 성능저하 등의 문제점으로 인하여 우주용 착륙선 충격완충장치로 적용이 불가능하다. 따라서 기존의 우주용 착륙선의 대부분은 충격에너지를 기계적인 좌굴 소성 변형에너지로 변환하여 충격을 흡수할 수 있도록 알루미늄 허니콤을 주로 많이 사용하여 왔다. 본 연구에서는 진공 및 무중력 우주환경에서 착륙선 충격완충 장치로 적용이 가능하도록 실리콘 포옴과 스프링을 조합하여 구성하였으며, 충격완충 매체로 유압유 및 공압을 대체할 수 있도록 실리콘 포옴을 후방 사출 성형 방식으로 적용하여 오리피스를 통과한 실리콘 포옴의 변형에너지로 충격에너지를 흡수하게 함으로서 착륙 완충효율을 극대화 할 수 있도록 검토하였다.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.213-220
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• 2013

Korean Lunar Explorer is planned to be launched in the 2020s according to national space development strategy. The Lunar Explorer will be developed as two unmanned light weight models: a lunar orbiter and a lunar lander. The Lunar Explorer's structure should be designed to have light weight due to constraints from launcher as well as to provide structural safety against launch load, in-orbit condition and landing condition and to serve accommodation space for mission equipment. Core technology related to structural development of lunar explorer should be developed in advance. Especially, for lunar lander, technology for developing landing gear which enables lander to land safely on lunar surface is required essentially. This paper deals with structural development of lunar lander ground test model including design, manufacturing and test.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.135-138
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• 2011

As a basic research for the development of Korean lunar lander, propulsion system development for ground test is in progress. Thrust for descent is 200 N class. Design target is 220 N in vacuum thrust at 100 g/s flow rate, 200 psi chamber pressure. For ground test, thrust measurement system using LM guide was developed and test was performed. The result shows 160 N thrust in atmosphere condition at 210 psi chamber pressure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.27-30
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• 2011

For the successful development of korean lunar lander, the ground test is required in order to verify performance of propulsion system, attitude control system, performance of landing device and etc. In order to develop the lunar lander ground test model, development of large size thruster and pressure regulated propulsion system is now in progress. In this paper, the results of 200N class monopropellant thruster development and propulsion system design will be presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.314-320
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• 2011

In this work, optimization of two-stage shock absorption system for lunar lander has been carried out. Because of complexity of impact phenomena of shock absorption system, a 1-D constitutive model is proposed to describe the behavior of shock absorption system. Quadratic polynomial regression meta-model is constructed by using a commercial software ABAQUS with the proposed 1-D constitutive model, and sequential approximate optimization of two-stage shock absorption system has been carried out along with the constructed meta-model. Through the optimization, it is verified that landing impact force on lunar lander can be considerably reduced by changing the cell size and foil thickness of honeycomb structure in two-stage shock absorption system.