• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.35-46
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• 2022

The in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) for sustainable lunar surface and deep space explorations has recently gained attention. Also, research on the development of construction material preparation technology using lunar regolith is in progress. Microwave sintering technology for construction material preparation does not require a binder and is energy efficient. This study applies microwave sintering technology to KLS-1, a Korean lunar simulant. It is crucial to secure the homogeneity to produce a sintered specimen for construction material. Therefore, understanding the interactions between microwaves, cavities, and raw materials is required. Using a numerical model in terms of efficient assessment of several cases and establishment of equipment operating conditions is a very efficient approach. Therefore, this study also proposes and verifies a coupled electric-thermal numerical model through cross-validation and comparison with experimental results. The numerical model proposed in this study will be used to present an efficient method for producing construction material using microwave sintering technology.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.105.1-105.1
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• 2012

Moon and Mars have been explored by landers and rovers. Apollo missions landed five times on Lunar surface, and various rovers, including Curiosity landed and explored Mars. The selection of landing site have to be considered engineering and scientific side: the landing site to be available to land stably? the obstacle is not around the rover such as rocks and pothole? the landing site is valuable with scientific? And then landing site have to be the place which is satisfied two objects. We search the information about landing sites of Moon and Mars, and compile the conditions of landing sites. We expect that these data are useful when the landing site of Moon or Mars for Korean mission is selected.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.48.3-49
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• 2021

We study the process of panspermia in Milky Way-like galaxies by modeling the probability of successful travel of organic compounds between stars harboring potentially habitable planets. To this end, we apply the modified habitability recipe of Gobat & Hong (2016) to a model galaxy from the MUGS suite of zoom-in cosmological simulations. We find that, unlike habitability, which only occupies narrow dynamic range over the entire galaxy, the panspermia probability can vary be orders of magnitude between the inner (R, b = 1~4 kpc) and outer disk. However, only a small fraction of star particles have very large values of panspermia probability and, consequently, the fraction of star particles where the panspermia process is more effective than prebiotic evolution is much lower than from naïve expectations based on the ratio between panspermia probability and natural habitability. The lunar surface progressively darkens and reddens as a result of sputtering from solar wind particles and bombardment of micrometeoroids. The extent of exposure to these space weathering agents is frequently calculated as the location in a diagram of reflectance at 750 nm

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.45.3-46
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• 2015

Space weathering agents such as micrometeoroids and solar wind particles continuously age the uppermost regolith of the lunar surface by comminuting as well as darkening and reddening. Among several maturity indices, we investigate median grain size () and optical maturity (OMAT) of the crater rim walls. Crater rim wall is the most immature place among the impact crater features because the vertical mixing process by mass-movement can enhance the gardening of regolith and the supply of immature materials in the deeper layer to the surface. More than 140 simple and complex craters were considered. Both and OMAT values of the inner rim wall initially increase as the crater size increases until ~10-20 km, then decrease. This transition crater size happens to correspond to the transition diameter from simple to complex craters. For larger craters, i.e., complex craters, it is clear that the inner rim wall of the craters formed in recent eras tend to remain fresh and become mature along with time. For the simple crater case, smaller craters are more mature, which is opposite to the case of complex craters. This is thought to be because smaller craters become flattened more quickly, thus have smaller vertical mixing in the regolith due to mass-movement. We will also discuss on the maturity indices of the crater rim walls at high latitudes as a function of the position angle to see the latitude dependence of the space weathering process.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.44.1-44.1
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• 2021

We plan to visit the Apophis, a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA). Apophis will have an extremely close encounter with the Earth on April, 2029. At the closest position, Apophis approaches 0.1 lunar distances from the Earth. The science goals are 1) mapping the surface of the asteroid before and after the encounter, 2) measuring surface roughness before and after the encounter, and 3) measuring interplanetary space environments such as magnetic field and dust particles. For the science goal, we are planning to employ five instruments for this mission, which are Polarimetric Asteroid Camera (PolACam), Asteroid Terrain Mapping Camera (MapCam), Laser Altimeter, Dust Particle Detector (DPDetector), Magnetometer (Mag). In this presentation, we plan to give a talk on the instruments.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.40-63
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• 2016

John Glenn, America's first man to eat anything in the near-weightless environment of Earth orbit, found the task of eating fairly easy. With improved packaging came improved food quality and menus. By the time of the Apollo Program, the quality and variety of food increased even further. Apollo astronauts were the first to have hot water, which made rehydrating foods easier and improved the food's taste. Thermostabilized pouches were also introduced on Apollo. The task of eating in space got a big boost in Skylab. It also had a food freezer and refrigerator a convenience offered by no other vehicle before or since. Two different food systems will be used for future long-duration missions to other planets, one for traveling to and from the distant body and one for use on the surface of the moon or Mars. The transit food system will be similar to the space station food system with the exception that products with three-to five-year shelf lives will be needed. Thus, this part of the trip will be similar to what occurs aboard space missions now. The surface food system, be it lunar or planetary, will be quite different. It will be similar to a vegetarian diet that someone could cook on Earth. Once crew members arrive on the surface and establish living quarters, they can start growing crops. Once the crops are processed into edible ingredients, cooking will be done in the spacecraft's galley to make the food items. Disposal of used food packaging will be an issue since there will be no Progress vehicles to send off and incinerate into the Earth's atmosphere. Packaging materials will be used that have less mass but sufficient barrier properties for oxygen and water to maintain shelf life as those now in use.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.127-139
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• 2022

Irregular mare patches (IMPs), recently discovered on the Moon, are eruptions of magma on the lunar surface, and their origins are still in question. While prior studies on IMPs have mainly focused on optical image analysis, in this study, an analysis of the characteristics of minerals is performed exemplary for the first time. Modified Gaussian model (MGM) deconvolution was applied to the infrared spectrum to confirm the properties of the mafic mineral. Mafic minerals were analyzed for 6 olivine-rich (Ol-rich) IMPs out of 91 currently reported, and only 4 of them yielded results of significance. All four sites showed more abundance of Fe than Mg, and manifested a weak relationship with Mg-suite rock. However, a problem was discovered during the MGM application process due to pilot implementation. In order to solve this problem, it is required to adjust the MGM initial condition settings more precisely and to increase the signal to noise ratio of the observation data. Moreover, it is necessary to analyze the mineral properties for all IMPs considering minerals other than Ol and utilize them to deduce the origin of the IMPs.

• Ocean Science Journal
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.103-116
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• 2007

Seasonal changes of tide signal(s), temperature, salinity and current were studied during the years 2004-2005 in the northernmost Gulf of Aqaba, which is under developmental activities, to obtain scientific bases for best management and sustainability. Spectrum analysis revealed permanent signals of tide measurements during all seasons, which represented semidiurnal and diurnal barotropic tides. The other signal periods of 8.13, 6.10-6.32, 4.16 and 1.02-1.05 h were not detected in all seasons, which were related to shallow water compound and overtides of principle solar and lunar constituent and to seiches generated in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. Spatial and temporal distribution of temperature, salinity and density showed significant differences between months in the coastal and offshore region and no significant differences among the coastal sites, between the surface and bottom waters and between coastal and offshore waters. Therefore, the temporal and spatial variation of water properties in the northernmost Gulf of Aqaba behave similarly compared to other parts. The coastal current below 12 m depth was weak $(3-6\;cms^{-1})$ and fluctuated from east-northeastward to west-southwestward (parallel to the shoreline), which may be related to the effect of bottom topography and/or current density due to differential cooling between eastern and western parts in the study area, and wind-induced upwelling and downwelling in the eastern and western side, respectively. The prevailing northerly winds and stratification conditions during summer were the main causes of the southward current at 6 and 12 m depths with average speed of 28 and $12cms^{-1}$ respectively.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.53-59
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• 2007

Purpose : Bone mineral density (BMD) and bone microarchitecture are important determinants for bone strength. Recently micro-CT have provided possibilities for measuring a variety of structural indices to characterize bone microarchitecture. The objective of this study was to compare the BMD and micro-CT parameters with Young's modulus calculated by finite element analysis (FEA) for the evaluation of bone strength. Materials and Methods Bone specimens were obtained from the 18 female rabbits aged 16 weeks. Of those, 36 samples (right and left femur) were selected for 3D micro-CT analysis $(ANT^{TM},\;SKYSCAN,\;Belgium)$ and BMD by PIXlmus 2 (GE Lunar Co. USA). Five microstructural parameters of micro-CT, such as trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), bone specific surface (BS/BV), percent bone volume (BV/TV), structure model index (SMI) and degree of anisotropy (DOA) were studied. Young's modulus was obtained by software program (ANSYS 9.0, ANSYS Inc, Canonsburg, PA) based on micro-CT three dimensional images. Results : Young's modulus assessed by FEA correlated significantly with Tb.Th, BV/TV, BS/BV and SMI respectively. Young's modulus showed higher correlation with these rnicrostructural parameters of micro-CT than BMD. Microstructural parameters except DOA showed significant correlations within the examined group. Conclusion The microarchitectural parameters o( micro-CT and BMD represented some informations in the evaluation of bone strength assessed by FEA.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.81-90
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• 2024

With the discovery of energy resources such as water ice on the Moon's surface, the Moon is attracting attention as an outpost for deep space exploration. As the concept of in situ resource utilization (ISRU) for establishing sustainable deep space exploration outposts gains traction, there is an increasing demand for technology to solidify lunar regolith as an in situ resource. In this study, sintered blocks were manufactured using a hybrid microwave sintering furnace. The effects of system configuration and dwell time on the microwave sintering efficiency were assessed. The results indicated that the composition of the SiC susceptor and its distance from the magnetron influenced the manufacturing of homogeneous sintered blocks. Additionally, varying the dwell time at a sintering temperature of 1,080℃ under optimal conditions revealed that exceeding the threshold dwell time caused the sintered blocks to become heterogeneous, thereby reducing the sintering efficiency.