• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.21-28
• /
• 2016

Caves can serve as major outposts for future human exploration of the Moon and Mars. In addition, caves can protect people and electronic equipment from external hazards such as cosmic ray radiation and meteorites impacts and serve as a shelter. Numerous pit craters have been discovered on the Moon and Mars and are potential entrances to caves; the principal topographic features of pit craters are their visible internal floors and pits with vertical walls. We have devised two topographical models for investigating the relationship between the topographical characteristics and the inner void of pit craters. One of our models is a concave floor void model and the other is a convex floor tube model. For each model, optical photographs have been obtained under conditions similar to those in which optical photographs have been acquired for craters on the Moon and Mars. Brightness profiles were analyzed for determining the profile patterns of the void pit craters. The profile patterns were compared to the brightness profiles of Martian pit craters, because no good-quality images of lunar pit craters were available. In future studies, the model profile patterns will be compared to those of lunar pit craters, and the proposed method will likely become useful for finding lunar caves and consequently for planning lunar bases for manned lunar expeditions.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.801-809
• /
• 2019

NASA's lunar polar exploration mission in 2009 confirmed the presence of ice-layer in the permanently shadowed regions (PSR) of the moon. Since then, studies have been actively conducted to evaluate the ground characteristics for exploring the ice-layer in the polar regions of the Moon. In this study, transient heat transfer analysis for the lunar ground was conducted to predict the ground's temperature that varies with the time and location. As a result of the numerical analysis, it was confirmed that the temperature under the lunar ground converged to below the ice sublimation reference temperature (≒112 K) at above 86° latitude. This model enabled us to identify the regions where there is a high possibility of ice being buried. Besides, we found that the ice-layer in the shallow region, where the temperature deviation is significant, makes ground temperature distribution heterogeneous. Lastly, this study suggested the maximum allowable frictional heat of a drill bit that can preserve the phase of buried ice.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.23 no.10
• /
• pp.21-31
• /
• 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 Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.237-250
• /
• 2021

A rover is a planetary surface exploration device designed to move across the ground on a planet or a planetary-like body. Exploration rovers are increasingly becoming a vital part of the search for scientific evidence and discoveries on a planetary satellite of the Sun, such as the Moon or Mars. Reliable behavior and predictable locomotion of a rover is important. Understanding soil behavior and its interaction with rover wheels-the terramechanics-is of great importance in rover exploration performance. Up to now, many researchers have adopted Bekker's semiempirical model to predict rover wheelsoil interaction, which is based on the assumption that soil is deformable when a pressure is applied to it. Despite this basic assumption of the model, the pressure-sinkage relation is not fully understood, and it continues to present challenges for rover designers. This article presents a new pressure-sinkage model based on dimensional analysis (DA) and results of bevameter tests. DA was applied to the test results in order to propose a new pressure-sinkage model by reducing physical quantitative parameters. As part of the work, a new bevameter was designed and built so that it could be successfully used to obtain a proper pressure-sinkage relation of Korean Lunar Soil Simulant (KLS-1). The new pressure-sinkage model was constructed by using three different sizes of flat plate diameters of the bevameter. The newly proposed model was compared successfully with other models for validation purposes.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.240-252
• /
• 2016

In this paper, an on-board orbit propagator and compressing trajectory method based on B-spline for a lunar explorer are proposed. An explorer should recognize its own orbit for a successful mission operation. Generally, orbit determination is periodically performed at the ground station, and the computed orbit information is subsequently uploaded to the explorer, which would generate a heavy workload for the ground station and the explorer. A high-performance computer at the ground station is employed to determine the orbit required for the explorer in the parking orbit of Earth. The method not only reduces the workload of the ground station and the explorer, but also increases the orbital prediction accuracy. Then, the data was compressed into coefficients within a given tolerance using B-spline. The compressed data is then transmitted to the explorer efficiently. The data compression is maximized using the proposed methods. The methods are compared with a fifth order polynomial regression method. The results show that the proposed method has the potential for expansion to various deep space probes.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.154-164
• /
• 2023

In space exploration, spectroscopic observation is useful for understanding objects' composition and physical properties. There are various methods for analyzing spectral data, and there are differences depending on the object and the wavelength. This paper introduces a method for analyzing visible & nearinfrared (VNIR) spectral data, which is mainly applied in lunar exploration. The main analysis methods include false color ratio image processing, reflectance pattern analysis, integrated band depth (IBD) processing, and continuum removal as preprocessing before analysis. These spectroscopic analysis methods help to understand the mineral properties of the lunar surface in the VNIR region and can be applied to other celestial bodies such as Mars.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.36 no.8
• /
• pp.17-25
• /
• 2020

Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology has constructed a large scale Dust Thermal Vacuum Chamber to simulate extreme lunar terrestrial environments and to study the Moon as an outposts for space development and exploration. Although a large amount of KLS-1 (Korean Lunar Simulant-1) is required for research, its massive production is practically difficult. This paper describes semi-automatic manufacturing system for massive production of KLS-1 in detail, which is seven times more efficient than manual production. In addition, to increase the similarity with lunar regolith, hydrogen reduction reaction using ilmenite which is one of the minerals was also conducted to simulate nanophase Fe(0) which is the unique property of lunar regolith. As a result, it was found that np-Fe(0) was formed at a temperature of 700℃ or higher, and increased in proportion to the temperature until 900℃.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.38 no.9
• /
• pp.875-881
• /
• 2010

During the lunar mission, spacecraft are subject to various unexpected disturbance sources such as third body attraction, solar pressure and operating impulsive maneuver error. Therefore, efficient trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) strategy must be required to follow the designed mission trajectory. In the early days of space exploration, the mission trajectory has been designed by using patched conic approach based on two-body dynamics for the lunar mission. Thus the TCM based on two-body dynamics has been usually adopted. However, with the advanced in computing power, the mission trajectory based on three-body dynamics is attempted recently. Thus, these approaches based on two-body dynamics are essentially different from real environment and large amount of energy for the TCM is required. In this work, we study the trajectory correction maneuver based on three-body dynamics.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.52-65
• /
• 2022

Korea is near close the success on the indigenous launch vehicle KSLV-2 after the second test launch during the second half of 2022, and the satellite development has been already in the level of advanced country. After the such mature of satellite and launch vehicle technologies, Korea's space development main theme should be 'Space Exploration and Space Application', and paradigm should be changed from 'Hardware' to 'Scientific/Technological Mission', from 'Unmanned' to 'Manned'. Korea's prime space strategy should be the direction of expansion of space industry, creation of employment and secure the key technologies, improvement of convenience and safety of people. For the purpose it is necessary to start 'Manned Space Development' such that participation to 'Artemis and Gateway Program' in 20s' and manned Mars exploration in 30s' which would be carried out by means of global international cooperation, and which could be a good opportunity to explore the new area of space development and upgrade national technology capability. Taking advantage of this opportunity, it is required for Korea to join the international programs through developing indigenous challenging, sustainable Korean mission and hardware. Also selection of the 2^nd Korean Astronaut could draw national attention, especially could give dreams to young generation. Participation to the Artemis program could be the opportunity of entering the major space fairing nation and boosting up national pride. In this study we survey and analyze the Artemis Program in detail, and in conclusion we suggest the strategy of Korea's participation to the Artemis Program.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.57.2-57.2
• /
• 2021

An asteroid is important for understanding the condition of our solar system in early-stage because an asteroid, considered as a building block of the solar system, preserves the information when our solar system was formed. It has been continuously flowing into the near-Earth space, and then some asteroids have a probability of impacting Earth. Some asteroids have valuable minerals and volatiles for future resources in space activity. Korean government clarified, in the 3rd promotion plan for space activity, an asteroid sample return mission by the mid-2030s. However, it is almost impossible to do so based on only a single experience of an exploration mission to the Moon, Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, which will be launched in mid-2022. We propose a Rendezvous Mission to Apophis(RMA), beneficial in terms of science, impact hazardous, resource, and technical readiness for the space exploration of Korea.