• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.129-138
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• 2009

The lunar gravity field is an important source to understand the lunar interior structure, dichotomy and magma ocean of the moon, furthermore it can be used to study the origin and evolution history of the moon. In this paper, we firstly investigated the history of lunar exploration were performed for determining the lunar gravity field, in addition to investigating the procedure of progress related with the lunar gravity field model and gravity observations techniques. After, we determined practically the gravity anomalies of the moon using the new lunar gravity model, SGM90d (SELENE Gravity Model), which were developed by processing the tracking data from SELENE, the japanese lunar mission. Finally, we compared the lunar gravity anomalies from SGM90d model to the those from existing lunar gravity model (LP165P). As results from the comparison, we can make a sense that 4-way Doppler observations of SELENE is very effective to measure the gravity field on the farside of the moon. The precise lunar gravity field model including the farside of the moon which can be more helpful to understand the dichotomy of moon and to establish the detailed distribution of lunar gravity field, such as a mascon.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.97-106
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• 2010

To prepare for a Korean lunar orbiter mission, a precise lunar orbit propagator; Yonsei precise lunar orbit propagator (YSPLOP) is developed. In the propagator, accelerations due to the Moon's non-spherical gravity, the point masses of the Earth, Moon, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and also, solar radiation pressures can be included. The developed propagator's performance is validated and propagation errors between YSPOLP and STK/Astrogator are found to have about maximum 4-m, in along-track direction during 30 days (Earth's time) of propagation. Also, it is found that the lifetime of a lunar polar orbiter is strongly affected by the different degrees and orders of the lunar gravity model, by a third body's gravitational attractions (especially the Earth), and by the different orbital inclinations. The reliable lifetime of circular lunar polar orbiter at about 100 km altitude is estimated to have about 160 days (Earth's time). However, to estimate the reasonable lifetime of circular lunar polar orbiter at about 100 km altitude, it is strongly recommended to consider at least $50\;{\times}\;50$ degrees and orders of the lunar gravity field. The results provided in this paper are expected to make further progress in the design fields of Korea's lunar orbiter missions.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.285-294
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• 2014

The uneven mass distribution of the Moon highly perturbs the lunar spacecrafts. This uneven mass distribution leads to peculiar dynamical features of the lunar orbiters. The critical inclination is the value of inclination which keeps the deviation of the argument of pericentre from the initial values to be zero. Considerable investigations have been performed for critical inclination when the gravity field is assumed to be symmetric around the equator, namely for oblate gravity field to which Earth's satellites are most likely to be subjected. But in the case of a lunar orbiter, the gravity field of mass distribution is rather asymmetric, that is, sectorial, and tesseral, harmonic coefficients are big enough so they can't be neglected. In the present work, the effects of the first sectorial and tesseral harmonic coefficients in addition to the first zonal harmonic coefficients on the critical inclination of a lunar artificial satellite are investigated. The study is carried out using the Hamiltonian framework. The Hamiltonian of the problem is cconstructed and the short periodic terms are eliminated using Delaunay canonical variables. Considering the above perturbations, numerical simulations for a hypothetical lunar orbiter are presented. Finally, this study reveals that the critical inclination is quite different from the critical inclination of traditional sense and/or even has multiple solutions. Consequently, different families of critical inclination are obtained and analyzed.

• Journal of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.335-342
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• 2023

Lunar Navigation Satellite System refers to a constellation of satellite providing PNT services on the moon. LNSS consists of main satellite and navigation satellites. Navigation satellites orbiting around the moon and a main satellite moves the area between the moon and the L2 point. The navigation satellite performs the same role as the Earth's GNSS satellite, and the main satellite communicates with the Earth for time synchronization. Due to the effect of the non-uniform shape of the moon, it is necessary to focus on the influence of the lunar gravitational field when designing the orbit simulation for navigation satellite. Since the main satellite is farther away from the moon than the navigation satellite, both the earth's gravity and the moon's gravity must be considered simultaneously when designing the orbit simulation for main satellite. Therefore, the main satellite orbit simulation must be designed through the three-body problem between the Earth, the moon, and the main satellite. In this paper, the orbit simulation tool for main satellite and navigation satellite required for LNSS was designed. The orbit simulation considers the environment characteristics of the moon. As a result of comparing long-term data (180 days) with the commercial program GMAT, it was confirmed that there was an error of about 1 m.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2020

Frozen orbit is an attractive option for orbital design owing to its characteristics (its argument of pericenter and eccentricity are kept constant on an average). Solar sails are attractive solutions for massive and expensive missions. However, the solar radiation pressure effect represents an additional force on the solar sail that may greatly affect its orbital behavior in the long run. Thus, this force must be included as a perturbation force in the dynamical model for more accuracy. This study shows the calculations of initial conditions for a lunar solar sail frozen orbit. The disturbing function of the problem was developed to include the lunar gravitational field that is characterized by uneven mass distribution, third body perturbation, and the effect of solar radiation. An averaging technique was used to reduce the dynamical problem to a long period system. Lagrange planetary equations were utilized to formulate the rate of change of the argument of pericenter and eccentricity. Using the reduced system, frozen orbits for the Moon sail orbiter were constructed. The resulting frozen orbits are shown by two 3Dsurface (semi-major, eccentricity, inclination) figures. To simplify the analysis, we showed inclination-eccentricity contours for different values of semi-major axis, argument of pericenter, and values of sail lightness number.