• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.355-372
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• 2006

Mission opportunities and trajectory characteristics for the future Korean Mars mission have designed and analyzed using KSIV-III(Korea Space Launch Vehicle-III). Korea's first space center, 'NARO space center' is selected as a launch site. For launch opportunities, year 2033 is investigated under considering the date of space center's completion with KSLV series development status. Optimal magnitude of various maneuvers, Trans Mars Injection (TMI) maneuver, Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM), Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) maneuver and Orbit Trim Maneuver(OTM), which are required during the every Mars mission phases are computed with the formulation of nonlinear optimization problems using NPSOL software. Finally, mass budgets for upper stage (launcher for KSIV-III and spacecraft are derived using various optimized maneuver magnitudes. For results, daily launch window from NARO space center for successful Korean Mars mission is avaliable for next 27 minutes starting from Apr. 16. 2033. 12:17:26 (UTC). Maximum spacecraft gross mass which can delivered to Mars is about 206kg, with propellant mass of 109kg and structure mass of 97kg, when on board spacecraft thruster's Isp is assumed to have 290 sec. For upper stage, having structure ratio of 0.15 and Isp value of 280 sec, gross mass is about 1293kg with propellant mass of 1099kg and structure mass of 194kg. However, including 10% margins to computed optimal maneuver values, spacecraft gross mass is reduced to about 148kg with upper stage's mass of 1352kg. This work will give various insights, requiring performances to developing of KSIV-III and spacecraft design for future Korean Mars missions.