• Current Industrial and Technological Trends in Aerospace
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.62-76
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• 2010

In this paper, recent researches about the unmanned lunar lander development are studied. Objectives of this study are to derive research trends and to identify key design activities especially in early design phase of unmanned lunar lander. Case study covers SELENE-2 of Japan, LEDA and MoonNEXT of ESA, and small and modular spacecraft approach of NASA. Lunar lander concepts proposed for the International Lunar Network Anchor Nodes are also studied. For each lunar lander program, mission requirements are summarized and mission design results are reviewed. Approaches of safe lunar landing including design of navigation, guidance and control, combination of sensors, derived sensor and propulsion performance requirements are also analyzed.

• 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.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.402-409
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• 2018

In this paper, we propose a lunar landing scenario of a robotic lunar landing mission and implements an optimal landing trajectory at the powered descent phase based on the proposed scenario. The change of attitude of the lunar lander in the power descent phase affects not only the amount of fuel used but also sensor operation of image based navigation. Therefore, the attitude angular velocity is included in the cost function of the optimal control problem to minimize the unnecessary attitude change when the optimal landing trajectory generates at powered descent phase of the lunar landing. The influence of the change of attitude angular velocity on the optimal landing trajectory are analyzed by adjusting the weight of the attitude angular velocity. Based on the results, we suggest the proper weight to generate the optimal landing trajectory in order to minimize the influence of the attitude angular velocity.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.93-98
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• 2019

In case of unmanned aerial vehicles used in modern society, there has been a problem where a human operator should be still needed to control the UAV because of a lower level of autonomy. In this paper, genetic algorithm is selected as a methodology for the autonomy accomplishment and then we verify a possibility of UAV autonomy by applying the GA. The landing is one of the important classical tasks on aerial vehicle and the lunar Landing is one of the most historical events. Autonomy possibility of computer-simulated UAV is verified by landing autonomy method of a falling body equipped with a propulsion system similar to the lunar Lander. When applying the GA, the genom is encoded only with 4 actions (left-turn, right-turn, thrust, and free-fall) and applied onto the falling body, Then we applied the major operations of GA and achieved a success experiment. A major contribution is to construct a simulated UAV where an autonomy of UAV can be accomplished while minimizing the sensor dependency. Also we implemented a test-bed where the possibility of autonomy accomplishment by applying the GA can be verified.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.21-31
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• 2022

Prospecting ice on Moon requires drilling systems to obtain subsurface samples and measure composition of ice deposits. Landers and rovers need to be equipped with drilling equipment in order to analyze the ice and subsurface resources located at the poles of Moon. These devices must be small, lightweight, low-power, highly efficient and high-performance units in order to function properly under the extreme conditions of the lunar environment. Researchers have developed a prototype drilling apparatus that is able to operate in atmospheric and cold environments. Newly developed drilling system in Korea, which is capable of performing not only sampling but also subsurface investigation, is introduced.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.144-152
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• 2018

Lunar exploration, which was led by the United States and the former Soviet Union, ceased in the 1970s. On the other hand, since massive lunar ice deposits and rare resources were found in 1990s, European Union, China, Japan, and India began to participate in lunar exploration to secure future lunar resource as well as to construct a lunar base. In the near future, it is expected that national space agencies and private industries will participate in the lunar exploration together. Their missions will include the exploration and sample return of lunar resources. Lunar resources have a close relationship with the lunar in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). To construct a lunar base, it is inevitable to bring huge amounts of resources from Earth. Water and oxygen, however, will need to be produced from local lunar resources and lunar terrain feature will need to be used to construct the lunar base. Therefore, in this paper, the global trends on lunar exploration and lunar construction technology are investigated and compared along with the ISRU technology to support human exploration and construct a lunar base on the Moon's surface.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.131-143
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• 2022

The lunar exploration autonomous vehicle operates based on the lunar topography information obtained from real-time image characterization. For highly accurate topography characterization, a large number of training images with various background conditions are required. Since the real lunar topography images are difficult to obtain, it should be helpful to be able to generate mimic lunar image data artificially on the basis of the planetary analogs site images and real lunar images available. In this study, we aim to artificially create lunar topography images by using the location information-based style transfer algorithm known as Wavelet Correct Transform (WCT2). We conducted comparative experiments using lunar analog site images and real lunar topography images taken during China's and America's lunar-exploring projects (i.e., Chang'e and Apollo) to assess the efficacy of our suggested approach. The results show that the proposed techniques can create realistic images, which preserve the topography information of the analog site image while still showing the same condition as an image taken on lunar surface. The proposed algorithm also outperforms a conventional algorithm, Deep Photo Style Transfer (DPST) in terms of temporal and visual aspects. For future work, we intend to use the generated styled image data in combination with real image data for training lunar topography objects to be applied for topographic detection and segmentation. It is expected that this approach can significantly improve the performance of detection and segmentation models on real lunar topography images.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.86-99
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• 2023

The mass spectrometer, being an essential scientific instrument for uncovering the origin of the solar system and life, has been used since the early 1970s on board spacecraft to obtain information of neutral and ionized elements in the atmosphere and surface of the moon, planets, asteroids, and comets. According to the 4th Basic Plan for the Promotion of Space Development (2023-2027), Korea plans to conduct lunar landing in 2032 and Mars landing in 2045 as the core goals of the plan and focuses on developing the technologies required for unmanned robotic exploration missions. In this regard, it is crucial to develop the technology of a mass spectrometer, which is the most fundamental payload for space exploration for maximized scientific achievements, however never tried before in any domestic space missions. We describe in this paper the principle of a domestically developed quadrupole mass spectrometer, its prototype model, and the test results of its performance. We conclude this paper with intended future improvements.