• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.20-28
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• 2011

The electro-optical payload of a low-earth orbit satellite is thermally decoupled with the bus, which supports a payload for a mission operation. The payload has a cooling unit of FPA(Focal Plane Assembly) which has a thermal behavior increasing its temperature instantly during an operation in order to dissipate a waste heat into the space. The FPA cooling unit should include a radiator and heatpipes with a sufficient performance in worst hot condition, and a heater design to maintain its temperature above a minimum allowable temperature in the worst cold condition. In this paper, we analyzed the thermal requirements and the heater design constraints from the thermal analysis results for the current thermal design of the FPA cooling unit and the design elements of the better heater design were found.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.120-124
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• 2003

KAISTSAT- 4, an experimental small satellite, is being developd by Satellite Technology Research Center in KAIST as a sequel mission to KITSAT-1, 2, and 3. The flight model scheduled to be launched in 2003, the qualification model construction and testing have been completed recently. The satellite subsystems of the qualification model have been tested under a thermal vacuum environment harsher than expected in the orbit. Thermal balance test has also been done in order to evaluate and tune the thermal analysis model of the qualification model. This paper describes the thermal vacuum test procedure, the results, as well as the lessons learned during the tests, which can be useful for future thermal vacuum tests of small satellites.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.97-101
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• 2012

The TC&R(Telemetry, Command & Ranging) antennas should have the hemispherical omni antenna patterns to make sure that the communication link between the satellite and the ground station can be established under whatever satellite attitude during after launch to on-orbit mission. The hemispherical omni-antennas are typically placed on the +z axis and -z axis of the satellite to provide the spherical omni patterns. The S-band qaudrifilar helix antennas having RHCP and LHCP hemispherical omni pattern are designed to meet the antenna gain and the axial ratio requirements. To investigate the omni-antenna pattern characteristics depending on four cases of antenna polarization combination placed on the +z axis and -z axis, the antenna pattern of each case is analyzed. Based on the result, after installing the designed RHCP and LHCP S-band omni-antennas on the +z axis and -z axis of the satellite, the combined antenna gain is obtained and finally analyzed in conjunction with the communication link influence.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.6_4
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• pp.1489-1501
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• 2018

In 2016 Kumamoto, Japan, the foreshocks of $M_j$ 6.5 and 6.4, mainshock of $M_j$ 7.3 besides more than 2,000 aftershocks occurred in succession. Large surface deformation occurred due to this serial earthquakes and three-dimensional measurements of the deformation have been presented for the study of fault structures (Baek, 2017). The 3d measurements retrieved from two ascending pairs (20160211_20160602, 20151119_20160616) and a descending pair (20160307_20160418) acquired from ALOS PALSAR-2. In order to avoid mixing ionospheric error components on along-track surface deformation, the descending multiple-aperture interferogram, which do not contain the deformation of aftershocks after 20160418, was utilized. For these reason, there was a temporal discrepancy of about 2 months in extracting the north-south deformation. In this study, we applied a directional filter based ionospheric correction to ascending multiple-aperture interferograms, in order to reduce this discrepancy and understand more accurate fault movements. As a result of the ionospheric correction, an additional displacement signal was observed nearby fault lines. The root-mean-squared errors compared to GPS were about 9.87, 8.13 cm respectively. These results show improvements of 4.8 and 6.4 times after ionospheric correction. We expected that these along-track measurements would be used to decide more accurate movements of faults related to the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.118-143
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• 2023

Space is becoming more commercialized. Despite of its delayed start-up, space activities in Korea are attracting more nation-wide supports from both investors and government. May 25, 2023, KSLV II, also called Nuri, successfully transported, and inserted seven satellites to a sun-synchronous orbit of 550 km altitude. However, Starlink has over 4,000 satellites around this altitude for its commercial activities. Hence, it is necessary for us to constantly monitor the collision risks of these satellites against resident space objects including Starlink. Here we report a quantitative research output regarding the conjunctions, particularly between the Nuri satellites and Starlink. Our calculation shows that, on average, three times everyday, the Nuri satellites encounter Starlink within 1 km distance with the probability of collision higher than 1.0E-5. A comparative study with KOMPSAT-5, also called Arirang-5, shows that its distance of closest approach distribution significantly differs from those of Nuri satellites. We also report a quantitative analysis of collision-avoiding maneuver cost of Starlink satellites and a strategy for Korea, being a delayed starter, to speed up to position itself in the space leading countries. We used the AstroOne program for analyses and compared its output with that of Socrates Plus of Celestrak. The two line element data was used for computation.

• 한국지구과학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.04a
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• pp.38-39
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• 2010

낙뢰란 뇌운 속에서 분리 축적 된 음 (-)과 양 (+)의 전하 사이 또는 뇌운 속의 전하와 지면에 유도되는 전하 사이에서 발생하는 불꽃 방전을 말한다. 뇌운 안에는 이 불꽃 방전을 반복하기에 충분한 전하의 분리가 계속 일어나고 있는데, 그 결과 양전하 (+)는 구름의 상부에 넓게 분산되어 분포하고, 음전하 (-)는 주로 구름 하부에 분포한다. 이 때 음전하가 대지로 방전되어 발생하는 낙뢰를 부극성 (-)낙뢰, 양전하가 대지로 방전되어 발생하는 낙뢰를 정극성 (+)낙뢰라 한다. 낙뢰의 약 80%는 구름 내부 또는 구름 대 구름 사이에서 발생하고, 약 20%만이 구름과 지면 사이에서 발생하는데, 이러한 구름-지면 낙뢰 (Cloud-to-ground lightning)는 가장 위험하고 그 피해도 크다. 우리나라는 동아시아 몬순 기후의 영향으로 여름철에 대기가 불안정하여 낙뢰가 집중적으로 발생하며, 복잡한 지형과 해양의 영향으로 낙뢰현상의 공간적 변동도 크게 나타난다. 이러한 낙뢰는 최근으로 올수록 강도가 증가하고 있어 그 피해의 증가가 우려되기 때문에 낙뢰 발생 특성에 대한 연구가 필요하다. 본 연구에서는 낙뢰자료와 강수자료, 그리고 시 공간 분해능이 뛰어난 MTSAT-1R (Multi-functional Transport SATellite - 1 Replacement) 정지궤도 위성의 휘도온도를 이용하여 낙뢰 발생 시 강수 및 위성 휘도온도의 특성을 분석하고자 한다. 이러한 연구는 대류활동에 대한 정보 제공 뿐 아니라, 낙뢰 예측성 향상 및 재해 경감에도 활용될 수 있을 것이다. 본 연구에서는 2001년 기상청에 도입되어 운영 중인 신 낙뢰관측 시스템 (Total Lightning Detection System, TLDS)에서 관측된 낙뢰자료와 MTSAT-1R 위성에서 관측된 휘도온도 자료, 그리고 자동기상관측장비 (Automatic Weather System, AWS)에서 관측된 강수자료를 사용하였으며, 세 자료의 출처는 모두 기상청이다. 분석 기간은 2006년부터 2007년까지이며 우리나라에서 낙뢰발생 빈도가 여름철에 집중되어 나타나는 것을 고려하여 여름철 (6~8월) 낙뢰에 대해서만 분석하였다. 또한 낙뢰 발생 사례에 대하여 관측 효율이 90% 이상으로 알려진 위도 $33{\sim}39^{\circ}N$, 경도 $124{\sim}130^{\circ}E$ 영역에서 낙뢰발생시 강수 및 위성 휘도온도의 특성을 분석하였다. 사례는 낙뢰 발생 횟수가 많은 날을 중심으로 먼저 적외영상과 낙뢰영상을 정성적으로 분석한 후 뇌우의 지속시간이 긴 9개 사례를 선정하였다. MTSAT-1R 위성과 낙뢰자료 및 강수자료는 관측주기와 공간규모가 서로 다르기 때문에 세 자료를 함께 사용하기 위해서는 시 공간을 일치시키는 과정이 필요하다. 본 연구에서는 위성자료 관측시간(00분, 33분)과 AWS 지점 위 경도를 시 공간 일치를 위한 기준으로 사용하였다.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.73-86
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• 2000

Commonly-used methods for camera modelling of pushbroom images were implemented and their performances were assessed. The models include Vector Propagation) model, Gugan and Downman(GD)'s model, Orun and Natarajan(ON)'s model, and Direct Linear Transformation(DLT) model The models were tested on a SPOT full-scene over Seoul. The number of ground control points(GCP) used range from 1 to 23. For less than 6 GCPs all other models fail except VP, with VP's accuracy being 2.7 pixels. With mode than 6 GCPs ON shows the best accuracy with 1pixel accuracy while the accuracy of VP is 1.5 pixels. GD fails in most cases due to the correlation among model parameters. The accuracy of DLT does not converge but fluctuates between 1 and 4 pixels subject to GCPs used. VP has an advantage in that its results can be used for the estimation of satellite orbit. Unresolved topics are: to remove errors in GCPs from the aforementioned accuracy value; to improve the performance of VP.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.58-65
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• 2009

The paper identifies noise characteristics of a nonliner image sensor model which reflects a saturation effect of each detector pixel and extends the result to estimate an image SNR (Signla-to-Noise Ratio) distribution over all the pixels in a detector. In particular, nonlinearity of a pixel is studied from two perspectives of including asymmetry of a noise PDF (Probability Distribution Function) and enhancing a pixel SNR value, in comparison to a linear model. It is noted that the proposed image SNR distribution function is useful to effectively select new optimal operation parameter values: an integration time and an pixel-summing number, even after a launch campaign, assuming sensor gain degradation in orbit or inevitable modification of some operation parameter values due to space contingency.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.359-365
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• 2021

GEO-KOMPSAT-2A (GK2A) AMI (Advanced Meteorological Imager) Best Detector Select (BDS) map is pre-determined and uploaded before the satellite launch. After the launch, there is some possibility of a detector performance change driven by an abrupt temperature variation and thus the status of BDS map needs to be evaluated and updated if necessary. To investigate performance of entire elements of the detectors, AMI BDS analyses were conducted based on a technical note provided from the AMI vendor (L3HARRIS). The concept of the BDS analysis is to investigate the stability of signals from detectors while they are staring at targets (deep space and internal calibration target). For this purpose, Long Time Series (LTS) and Output Voltage vs. Bias Voltage (V-V) methods are used. The LTS for 30 secs and the V-V for two secs are spanned respectively for looking at the targets to compute noise components of detectors. To get the necessary data sets, these activities were conducted during the In-Orbit Test (IOT) period since a normal operation of AMI is stopped and special mission plans are commanded. With collected data sets during the GK2A IOT, AMI BDS map was intensively examined. It was found that about 1% of entire detector elements, which were evaluated at the ground test, showed characteristic changes and those degraded elements are replaced by alternative best ones. The stripping effects on AMI raw images due to the BDS problem were clearly removed when the new BDS map was applied.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.1399-1404
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• 2012

Because satellites operate in space, it is impossible to repair them when they malfunction. Therefore, to ensure the normal function of the payload used in the satellites, accurate assembly and installation of parts are crucial. To prevent abnormal functioning in the extreme environments during launch and in space, it is essential to test changes at the parts and system levels by performing alignment measurement before and after the launch environment test and the space environment test. Recently, noncontact three-dimensional precision machinery for medium- and large-sized parts has been developed. One of these is the theodolite measurement system, which is widely used in the aerospace industry. This study measures the angle of the dual thruster module that is used to control the attitude of KOMPSAT by using a theodolite, and alignment measurement and a reliability analysis are performed.