• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.89-97
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• 2021

STEP Cube Lab-II (Cube Laboratory for Space Technology Experimental Project-II) is a 6U Cube satellite equipped with optical and infrared cameras for monitoring Mt. Paektu volcanic eruption signs and earth observation in the Korean peninsula. To guarantee successful mission operation of the cube satellite in orbit, thermal design is essential for the electronic equipment, and must be kept within the allowable temperature range during the mission period. Thus, it is necessary to analyze the predictable orbital thermal environment. The STEP Cube Lab-II is launched through the KSLV-II, however, the operation orbit has not been determined due to the unknown launch time. In this study, we performed a thermal analysis of the satellite and investigated the heat flux according to launch time to analyze the worst orbital conditions that could occur.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.156-164
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• 2016

Qualification model(QM) of main payloads including concentrating photovoltaic system using fresnel lens, heating wire cutting type shockless holding and release mechanism, and MEMS-based solid propellant thruster have been developed for the STEP Cube Lab.(Cube Laboratory for Space Technology Experimental Project), which is a pico-class satellite for verification of core space technologies. In this study, we have verified structural safety and functionality of the developed payloads under a qualification temperature range through the QM thermal vacuum test. Additionally, a reliability of thermal model of the payloads has been confirmed by performing a thermal correlation based on the thermal balance test results.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.43 no.9
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• pp.814-821
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• 2015

The STEP Cube Lab. classified as a pico-class satellite has been successfully developed as a flight model(FM) to be launched in 2015. Its mission objective is to perform the on-orbit verification of fundamental space core-technologies. In this study, a thermal design concept based on the passive method to achieve the mission objective is introduced. The effectiveness of the thermal design and performance of the satellite has been verified through the acceptance level thermal vacuum test. In addition, to improve the reliability of thermal mathematical model, correlation was performed using the results of thermal balance test. This paper describes a series of process for the thermal vacuum test on the STEP Cube Lab. FM.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.522-528
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• 2014

A UHF/VHF full-duplex communication using monopole and dipole antenna has been widely used for cube satellite applications. This kind of communication system requires a dedicated structure panel for antenna integration, which is the one of the disadvantages of the conventional communication system from the accommodation point of view considering the extremely limited volume of the cube satellite. In this study, to maximize the accommodation efficiency of the cube satellite, the commercial UHF half-duplex antenna combined with buck converter for communication modes transition has been considered in the communication system design. Its effectiveness has been verified through link budget analysis based on the antenna specifications and satellite's operation conditions. In addition, the antenna deployment mechanism for the synchronous release of multi-antennas has also been introduced.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.423-429
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• 2014

Passive attitude stabilization methods using the permanent magnet combined with hysteresis damper and the gravity gradient boom have been widely used for the attitude determination and control of cube satellite, due to its advantage of system simplicity. In this paper, on-orbit thermal characteristics of the cube satellite considering the attitude profiles obtained from the above passive attitude stabilization methods have been investigated through on-orbit thermal analysis. In addition, the effectiveness of the various thermal coatings on the panel for the communication antenna installation has been verified.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2022

CubeSat is a satellite platform that is widely used not only for earth observation but also for space exploration. CubeSat is also used in magnetic field investigation missions to observe space physics phenomena with various shape configurations of magnetometer instrument unit. In case of magnetic field measurement, the magnetometer instrument should be far away from the satellite body to minimize the magnetic disturbances from satellites. But the accommodation setting of the magnetometer instrument is limited due to the volume constraint of small satellites like a CubeSat. In this paper, we investigated that the magnetic field interference generated by the cube satellite was analyzed how much it can affect the reliability of magnetic field measurement. For this analysis, we used a reaction wheel and Torque rods which have relatively high-power consumption as major noise sources. The magnetic dipole moment of these parts was derived by the data sheet of the manufacturer. We have been confirmed that the effect of the residual moment of the magnetic torque located in the middle of the 3U cube satellite can reach 36,000 nT from the outermost end of the body of the CubeSat in a space without an external magnetic field. In the case of accurate magnetic field measurements of less than 1 nT, we found that the magnetometer should be at least 0.6 m away from the CubeSat body. We expect that this analysis method will be an important role of a magnetic cleanliness analysis when designing a CubeSat to carry out a magnetic field measurement.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.43 no.7
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• pp.609-618
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• 2015

This paper discusses the attitude determination of the CNUSAIL-1 cube-satellite. The primary mission of the CNUSAIL-1 is sail deployment and operation in low Earth orbit, and the secondary mission is to look into influence of the sail deployment on satellite attitude and orbit. The attitude determination strategy is proposed depending on three mission phases, and its performance and applicability are verified through numerical simulations. This study considers the following sensors: Sun sensors and a three-axis magnetometer as attitude reference sensors, and a three-axis MEMS gyroscope as an inertial attitude sensor. Because sensors used for cube satellites have relatively low performances and worse noise characteristics, an Extended Kalman filter (EKF) is applied to attitude determination. Additionally, it has the merits to deal with the Gaussian noises and to predict the attitude even with no measurements from reference attitude sensors, especially in the eclipse of the cube satellite. The performance of the EKF is compared to a deterministic attitude determination technique, QUEST(QUaternion ESTimation).

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.9
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• pp.720-725
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• 2013

Nylon wire cutting method by nichrome wire is generally applicable for cube satellite applications due to its advantages of simplicity. However, the system complexity is not avoidable to apply it on the cube satellite with multi-deployable structures. A lower constraint force of the mechanism is also one of the disadvantages of the mechanism. In this study, we proposed a preliminary structure design of cube satellite with the separation mechanism which is applicable for holding and release of the multi-deployable structures. The effectiveness of the mechanism design was verified through function test of EM mechanism. The structure analysis results showed that the structure design proposed in this study is feasible.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2013

Passive attitude stabilization method has been widely used for attitude determination and control of cube satellite due to its advantage of system simplicity. In this paper, permanent magnet stabilization method for application of cube satellite attitude control has been introduced and its performance with and without hysteresis damper system has been investigated through a numerical simulation. The simulation results indicate that the permanent magnet stabilization combined with hysteresis damper shows much higher stabilization performance than the system without damper system.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.335-344
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• 2013

TRiplet Ionospheric Observatory-CubeSat for Ion, Neutron, Electron & MAgnetic fields (TRIO-CINEMA) is a CubeSat with 3.14 kg in weight and 3-U ($10{\times}10{\times}30$ cm) in size, jointly developed by Kyung Hee University and UC Berkeley to measure magnetic fields of near Earth space and detect plasma particles. When a satellite is launched into orbit, it encounters ultra-high vacuum and extreme temperature. To verify the operation and survivability of the satellite in such an extreme space environment, experimental tests are conducted on the ground using thermal vacuum chamber. This paper describes the temperature control device and monitoring system suitable for CubeSat test environment using the thermal vacuum chamber of the School of Space Research, Kyung Hee University. To build the chamber, we use a general purpose thermal analysis program and NX 6.0 TMG program. We carry out thermal vacuum tests on the two flight models developed by Kyung Hee University based on the thermal model of the TRIO-CINEMA satellite. It is expected from this experiment that proper operation of the satellite in the space environment will be achieved.