• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.195-205
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• 2022

Space exploration is an area where international cooperation takes place more actively than any other space activities such as Earth observation, communication and navigation. This is because a country cannot afford a huge budget to have full infrastructure for deep space exploration, such as a heavy launch vehicle, communication and energy infrastructure, and human habitats, and has learned that it is not sustainable. Korea expressed its willingness to join humanity's epic exploration journey by signing the Artemis Accords in 2021 and launching Danuri lunar orbiter in 2022. The beginning of space exploration means that Korea's space activities have expanded beyond the stage of focusing only on technology development to set norms necessary to accompany other countries and cooperate diplomatically to solve exposed problems. This paper analyzed European space policy and space exploration, which are most actively participating in the Artemis Program and exerting diplomatic power in the space field, from the perspective of science and technology diplomacy. The suggestions for Korea's space exploration strategy from the perspective of science and technology diplomacy were drawn by examining the international cooperation strategies in Europe's space activities ranging from space policy, space strategy, and space exploration program to project units.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.79-88
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• 2023

On Aug. 4, 2022, at 23:08:48 (UTC), the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri, was launched using a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Currently, KPLO is successfully conducting its science mission around the Moon. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Deep Space Network (DSN) was utilized for the successful flight operation of KPLO. A great deal of joint effort was made between the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and NASA DSN team since the beginning of KPLO ground system design for the success of the mission. The efficient utilization and management of NASA DSN in deep space exploration are critical not only for the spacecraft's telemetry and command but also for tracking the flight dynamics (FD) operation. In this work, the top-level DSN interface architecture, detailed workflows, DSN support levels, and practical lessons learned from the joint team's efforts are presented for KPLO's successful FD operation. Due to the significant joint team's efforts, KPLO is currently performing its mission smoothly in the lunar mission orbit. Through KPLO cooperative operation experience with DSN, a more reliable and efficient partnership is expected not only for Korea's own deep space exploration mission but also for the KARI-NASA DSN joint support on other deep space missions in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.240-246
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• 2016

The hottest news and achievements of space science and research in recent years may be NASA Curiosity rover's exploration (2013) of Mars, China Chang'e 3's exploration (2013) of Moon, ESA Rosetta's exploration (2014) of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and NASA New Horizons' exploration (2015) of Pluto, which are very astonishing achievement since such a deep space journey was possible with current technology. In contrast the wonderful cruise and navigation technologies evolution of explorer in deep space, there are no remarkable changes in deep space data communication, it is still in conservative area, of which much changes are reluctantly accepted so far. But there are some movements of deep space exploration in order to allow ground brilliant technologies to deep space. One of those experiments is internet, whose main topic of this paper. In this paper, we will present the analysis of effectiveness of solar system internet to deep space exploration.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.9
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• pp.19-33
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• 2022

Planarity geotechnical exploration missions were actively performed during the 1970s and there was a period of decline from the 1 990s to the 2000s because of budget. However, exploring space resources is essential to prepare for the depletion of Earth's resources in the future and explore resources abundant in space but scarce on Earth, such as rare earth and helium-3. Additionally, the development of space technology has become the driving force of future industry development. The competition among developed countries for exoplanet exploration has recently accelerated for the exploration and utilization of space resources. For these missions and resource exploration/mining, geotechnical exploration is required. There have been several missions to explore exoplanet ground, including the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. There are Apollo, LUNA, and Chang'E missions for exploration of the Moon. The Mars missions included Viking, Spirit/Opportunity, Phoenix, and Perseverance missions, and the asteroid missions included the Hayabusa missions. In this study, space planetary mineral resource exploration technologies are explained, and the future technological tasks of Korea are described.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.80-85
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• 2018

In the 1990s, South Korea recently launched Space Development and is pushing for a step toward Space. In the Space Launch Vehicle field, the development of Practical satellite type Launch Vehicle (Korea Space Launch Vehicle II) has progressed to the stage of proprietary development, and in the field of Satellite development, they also have a great deal of competitiveness. This study will be a shortcut to rediscovering our potential and looking for breakthroughs by reviewing and re-examining the effects of past Space development.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.43-60
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• 2024

Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) is South Korea's first space exploration mission, developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. It aims to develop technologies for lunar exploration, explore lunar science, and test new technologies. KPLO was launched on August 5, 2022, by a Falcon-9 launch vehicle from cape canaveral space force station (CCSFS) in the United States and placed on a ballistic lunar transfer (BLT) trajectory. A total of four trajectory correction maneuvers were performed during the approximately 4.5-month trans-lunar cruise phase to reach the Moon. Starting with the first lunar orbit insertion (LOI) maneuver on December 16, the spacecraft performed a total of three maneuvers before arriving at the lunar mission orbit, at an altitude of 100 kilometers, on December 27, 2022. After entering lunar orbit, the commissioning phase validated the operation of the mission mode, in which the payload is oriented toward the center of the Moon. After completing about one month of commissioning, normal mission operations began, and each payload successfully performed its planned mission. All of the spacecraft operations that KPLO performs from launch to normal operations were designed through the system operations design process. This includes operations that are automatically initiated post-separation from the launch vehicle, as well as those in lunar transfer orbit and lunar mission orbit. Key operational procedures such as the spacecraft's initial checkout, trajectory correction maneuvers, LOI, and commissioning were developed during the early operation preparation phase. These procedures were executed effectively during both the early and normal operation phases. The successful execution of these operations confirms the robust verification of the system operation.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.293-299
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• 2023

The Wide-Angle Polarimetric Camera (PolCam) is installed on the Korea's lunar orbiter, Danuri, which launched on August 5, 2022. The mission objectives of PolCam are to construct photometric maps at a wavelength of 336 nm and polarization maps at 461 and 748 nm, with a phase angle range of 0°-135° and a spatial resolution of less than 100 m. PolCam is an imager using the push-broom method and has two cameras, Cam 1 and Cam 2, with a viewing angle of 45° to the right and left of the spacecraft's direction of orbit. We conducted performance tests in a laboratory setting before installing PolCam's flight model on the spacecraft. We analyzed the CCD's dark current, flat-field frame, spot size, and light flux. The dark current was obtained during thermal / vacuum test with various temperatures and the flat-field frame data was also obtained with an integrating sphere and tungsten light bulb. We describe the calibration method and results in this study.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.181-194
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• 2022

Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri, was successfully launched on 4 Aug. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station using a Space-X Falcon-9 rocket. Flight dynamics (FD) operational readiness was one of the critical parts to be checked before the flight. To demonstrate FD software's readiness and enhance the operator's contingency response capabilities, KPLO FD specialists planned, organized, and conducted four simulations and two rehearsals before the KPLO launch. For the efficiency and integrity of FD simulation and rehearsal, different sets of blind test data were prepared, including the simulated tracking measurements that incorporated dynamical model errors, maneuver execution errors, and other errors associated with a tracking system. This paper presents the simulation and rehearsal results with lessons learned for the KPLO FD operational readiness checkout. As a result, every functionality of FD operation systems is firmly secured based on the operation procedure with an enhancement of contingency operational response capability. After conducting several simulations and rehearsals, KPLO FD specialists were much more confident in the flight teams' ability to overcome the challenges in a realistic flight and FD software's reliability in flying the KPLO. Moreover, the results of this work will provide numerous insights to the FD experts willing to prepare deep space flight operations.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.363-365
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• 2012

We report a search for fluctuations of the sky brightness toward the North Ecliptic Pole with AKARI, at 2.4, 3.2, and $4.1{\mu}m$. The stacked images with a diameter of 10 arcminutes of the AKARI-Monitor Field show a spatial structure on the scale of a few hundred arcseconds. A power spectrum analysis shows that there is a significant excess fluctuation at angular scales larger than 100 arcseconds that cannot be explained by zodiacal light, diffuse Galactic light, shot noise of faint galaxies, or clustering of low-redshift galaxies. These findings indicate that the detected fluctuation could be attributed to the first stars of the universe, i.e., Population III stars.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.44 no.8
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• pp.741-757
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• 2016

Over 60 years has passed since mankinds started space exploration beyond the Earth with lunar explorer Luna 1 launched by Soviet Union. Unprecedently remarkable outcomes have been obtained by sending unmanned spacecrafts to most planets in the solar system and having the lander landed on the approaching comet toward the Earth even though any evidence of life presence has not been discovered yet. Only moon is an natural object beyond the earth on which human beings landed. Many countries are planning to send humans to the moon or mars to build colonies and to survive with substantiality. Korean lunar exploration program has officially started as of 2016 after its plan including lunar exploration has been specified in the series of National Space Promotion Plan since Korea initiated space development in early 1990s. In this paper, the plan for Korean space exploration is summarized with reviewing overseas space exploration program status and trends.