• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.361-374
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• 2008

Recently, satellite formation flying has been a topic of significant research interest in aerospace society because it provides potential benefits compared to a large spacecraft. Some techniques have been proposed to design optimal formation trajectories minimizing fuel consumption in the process of formation configuration or reconfiguration. In this study, a method is introduced to build fuel-optimal trajectories minimizing a cost function that combines the total fuel consumption of all satellites and assignment of fuel consumption rate for each satellite. This approach is based on collocation and nonlinear programming to solve constraints for collision avoidance and the final configuration. New constraints of nonlinear equality or inequality are derived for final configuration, and nonlinear inequality constraints are established for collision avoidance. The final configuration constraints are that three or more satellites should form a projected circular orbit and make an equilateral polygon in the horizontal plane. Example scenarios, including these constraints and the cost function, are simulated by the method to generate optimal trajectories for the formation configuration and reconfiguration of multiple satellites.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.72.3-73
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• 2017

The spatial distribution of sub-halos in a large host halo is usually described as isotropic in the ${\Lambda}CDM$ cosmology. Recent observations, however, show that satellite galaxies around massive galaxies are often located within a preferred plane. In order to understand the origin of such planar alignment, we investigate the spatial distribution of sub-halos around their hosts by using the hydrodynamic cosmological simulation, Illustris. In particular, we analyze the systems resembling the Milky Way (MW) and its satellites, i.e. consisting of MW-sized central galaxy and its at least 11 satellites. The result shows that ~10 % of MW-like systems have the anisotropic satellite galaxy distribution at z = 0. The satellites that are accreted more recently tend to form a flattened structure more frequently, indicating a link of satellite distribution to the surrounding environment. We discuss the physical origin of the anisotropic satellite distribution from the viewpoint of the ${\Lambda}CDM$ paradigm.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.95-108
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• 2019

Electric propulsion is a type of space propulsion with a high specific impulse by accelerating propellant using electrical energy and brings about reduction of the fuel mass and launch costs of satellites so that it is being extensively studied in the world. Electric thrusters are widely used for various purposes from micro satellites to large satellites and from low Earth orbit satellites to spacecraft for exploration. Recently, satellites using full-electric propulsion have been developed, and the number of satellites with electric propulsion is also gradually increasing. In this paper, the current status and trends of research on electric propulsion in the United States, Europe, and Japan will be reported.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.786-789
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• 2003

The detection of sandstorms and industrial pollutants has been the emphasis of this study. Data obtained from meteorological satellites, NOAA and GMS, have been used for detailed analysis. MODIS and Landsat images are also used for the application of future KOMPSAT- 2. Verification of satellite observations has been made with air pollution data obtained by ground-level monitors. It was found that satellite measurements agree well with concentrations and variations of air pollutants measured on the ground, and that satellite technique is a very useful device for monitoring large-scale air pollution in East Asia. The quantitative analysis of satellite image data on air pollution is the goal in the future studies.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.89-95
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• 2003

In this study, the technical characteristics of geosynchronous multi-mission satellites are investigated, compared to communication satellites. Geosynchronous meteorological satellites, whose imaging data is normally shared with the international society, have large coverage for monitoring and data service. Also the higher pointing accuracy is requested to keep the spatial resolution of 1-4km, compared to those of communication satellites. Cryogenic thermal control is needed for the better performance of IR sensors and the contamination protection of optical parts should be considered. On the other hands, for the successful development of the multi-mission satellite COMS, which will be launched in 2008, the special features of attitude control, electrical power, thermal control and mechanism are investigated.

• Journal of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.363-369
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• 2021

Since the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signal received from the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite is only affected by the upper ionosphere, the magnitude of the ionospheric delay of Global Positioning System (GPS) signal received from ground user is different. Therefore, the ground-based two-dimensional ionospheric model cannot be applied to LEO satellites. The NeQuick model used in Galileo provides the ionospheric delay according to the user's altitude, so it can be used in the ionospheric model of the LEO satellites. However, the NeQuick model is not suitable for space receivers because of the high computational cost. A simplified NeQuick model with reduced computing time was recently presented. In this study, the computing time of the NeQuick model and the simplified NeQuick model was analyzed based on the GPS Klobuchar model. The NeQuick and simplified NeQuick model were applied to the GNSS data from GRACE-B, Swarm-C, and GOCE satellites to analyze the performance of the ionospheric correction and positioning. The difference in computing time between the NeQuick and simplified NeQuick model was up to 90%, but the difference in ionospheric accuracy was not as large as within 4.5%.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.41-54
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• 2021

It is very essential to estimate the water body area using remote exploration for water resource management, analysis and prediction of water disaster damage. Hydrophysical detection using satellites has been mainly performed on large satellites equipped with optical and SAR sensors. However, due to the long repeat cycle, there is a limitation that timely utilization is impossible in the event of a disaster/disaster. With the recent active development of Micro satellites, it has served as an opportunity to overcome the limitations of time resolution centered on existing large satellites. The Micro satellites currently in active operation are ICEYE in Finland and Capella satellites in the United States, and are operated in the form of clusters for earth observation purposes. Due to clustering operation, it has a short revisit cycle and high resolution and has the advantage of being able to observe regardless of weather or day and night with the SAR sensor mounted. In this study, the operation status and characteristics of micro satellites were described, and the water area estimation technology optimized for micro SAR satellite images was applied to the Daecheong Dam basin on the Korean Peninsula. In addition, accuracy verification was performed based on the reference value of the water generated from the optical satellite Sentinel-2 satellite as a reference. In the case of the Capella satellite, the smallest difference in area was shown, and it was confirmed that all three images showed high correlation. Through the results of this study, it was confirmed that despite the low NESZ of Micro satellites, it is possible to estimate the water area, and it is believed that the limitations of water resource/water disaster monitoring using existing large SAR satellites can be overcome.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.33.1-33.1
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• 2021

The overprediction of the number of satellite galaxies in the LCDM paradigm compared to that of the Milky Way (MW) and M31 (the "missing satellites" problem) has been a long-standing issue. Recently, a large host-to-host scatter of satellite populations has been recognized both from an observational perspective with a larger sample and from a theoretical perspective including baryons, and it is crucial to collect diverse and complete samples with a large survey coverage to investigate underlying factors contributing to the diversity. In this study, we discuss the diversity in terms of galaxy assembly history, using satellite populations of both observed systems and simulated systems from IllustrisTNG. In addition to previously studied satellite systems, we identify satellite candidates from 25deg2 of Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) Wide layer around NGC 4437, a spiral galaxy of about one-fourth of the MW mass, paired with a ~2 magnitude fainter dwarf spiral galaxy NGC 4592. Using the surface brightness fluctuations (SBF) method, we confirm five dwarf galaxies as members of the NGC 4437 group, resulting in a total of seven members. The group consists of two distinct subgroups, the NGC 4437 subgroup and the NGC 4592 subgroup, which resembles the relationship between the MW and M31. The number of satellites is larger than that of other observed and simulated galaxy groups in the same host stellar mass range. However, the discrepancy decreases if compared with galaxy groups with similar magnitude gaps (V12 ~ 2), defined as the V-band magnitude difference between the two brightest galaxies in the group. Using simulated galaxy groups in IllustrisTNG, we find that groups with smaller V12 have richer satellite systems, host more massive dark matter halos, and have assembled more recently. These results show that the host-to-host scatter of satellite populations can be attributed to the diversity in galaxy assembly history and be probed by V12 to some degree and that NGC 4437 group is likely a recently assembled galaxy group with a large halo mass compared to galaxy groups of similar luminosity.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.39.1-39.1
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• 2017

The standard hierarchical galaxy formation scenario in the popular LCDM cosmogony has been very successful in explaining the large-scale distribution of galaxies. However, one of the failures of the theory is that it predicts too many satellite galaxies associated with massive galaxies compared to observations, which is called the missing satellite galaxy problem. Isolated groups of galaxies hosted by passively evolving massive early-type galaxies are ideal laboratories for finding the missing physics in the current theory. We discover through a deep spectroscopic survey of galactic satellite systems that bright isolated early-type galaxies have almost no satellite galaxies fainter than the r-band absolute magnitude of about Mr=-14. The cutoff is at somewhat brighter magnitude of about Mr=-15 when only early-type satellites are used. Such a cutoff is not observed in the luminosity function of galaxies in the field. Physical properties of the observed satellites depend sensitively on the host-centric distance. All these are strong evidence that galactic satellites can become invisible due to astrophysics of satellite-host galaxy interaction. A recent state-of-the-art hydrodynamic simulation of galaxy formation does not reproduce such a cutoff in the satellite galaxy luminosity function. But the past history of the simulated satellites shows that many satellite galaxies near or somewhat fainter than the cutoff magnitude have recently become extinct through fatal encounters with the host or other satellite galaxies. Our observation indicates that the missing satellite galaxy problem could be mitigated if the astrophysics of galaxy interaction is more elaborated in the theory.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.310-316
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• 2021

Conventional satellites are generally large satellites that are multi-functional and have high performance. However, small satellites have been gradually drawing attention since the recent development of lightweight and integrated electric, electronic, and optical technologies. As the size and weight of a satellite decrease, the barrier to satellite development is becoming lower due to the cost of manufacture and cheaper launch. However, solar panels are essential for the power supply of satellites but have limitations in miniaturization and weight reduction because they require a large surface area to be efficiently exposed to sunlight. Space solar cells must be manufactured in consideration of various space environments such as spacecraft and environments with solar thermal temperatures. It is necessary to study structural materials for lightweight and high-efficiency solar cells by applying an unfolding mechanism that optimizes the surface-to-volume ratio. Currently, most products are developed and operated as solar cell panels for space applications with a triple-junction structure of InGaP/GaAs/Ge materials for high efficiency. Furthermore, multi-layered junctions have been studied for ultra-high-efficiency solar cells. Flexible thin-film solar cells and organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells are advantageous for material weight reduction and are attracting attention as next-generation solar cells for small satellites.