• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2023

Surveillance and reconnaissance intelligence in the space domain will become increasingly important in future battlefield environments. Moreover, to assimilate the military provocations and trends of hostile countries, imagery intelligence of the highest possible resolution is required. There are many methods for improving the resolution of optical satellites when observing the ground, such as designing satellite optical systems with a larger diameter and lowering the operating altitude. In this paper, we propose a method for improving ground observation resolution by using an optical system for a previously designed low orbit satellite and lowering the operating altitude of the satellite. When the altitude of a satellite is reduced in a circular orbit, a large amount of thrust fuel is required to maintain altitude because the satellite's altitude can decrease rapidly due to atmospheric drag. However, by using the critical inclination, which can fix the position of the perigee in an elliptical orbit to the observation area, the operating altitude of the satellite can be reduced using less fuel compared to a circular orbit. This method makes it possible to obtain a similar observational resolution of a medium-sized satellite with the same weight and volume as a small satellite. In addition, this method has the advantage of reducing development and launch costs to that of a small-sized satellite. As a result, we designed an elliptical orbit. The perigee of the orbit is 300 km, the apogee is 8,366.52 km, and the critical inclination is 116.56°. This orbit remains at its lowest altitude to the Korean peninsula constantly with much less orbit maintenance fuel compared to the 300 km circular orbit.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.8-13
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• 2010

Satellite structure should be designed to accommodate and support safely the payload and equipments necessary for its own missions and to secure satellite and payloads from severe launch environments. The launch environments imposed on satellites are quasi-static accelerations, aerodynamic loads, acoustic loads and shock loads. Especially when optical payload is accommodated, satellite structure usually adopts the optical bench consisting of composite material not only to support and secure but also to guarantee good pointing stability against extreme thermal environments. This paper deals with optical bench and support structure which shall be designed to minimize the loads transferred to optical payloads from satellite.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.273-284
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• 2011

A method of stellar source selection for validating the quality of image is investigated for a low Earth orbit optical remote sensing satellite. Image performance of the optical payload needs to be validated after its launch into orbit. The stellar sources are ideal source points that can be used to validate the quality of optical images. For the image validation, stellar sources should be the brightest as possible in the charge-coupled device dynamic range. The time delayed and integration technique, which is used to observe the ground, is also performed to observe the selected stars. The relations between the incident radiance at aperture and V magnitude of a star are established using Gunn & Stryker's star catalogue of spectrum. Applying this result, an appropriate image performance index is determined, and suitable stars and areas of the sky scene are selected for the optical payload on a remote sensing satellite to observe. The result of this research can be utilized to validate the quality of optical payload of a satellite in orbit.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.1255-1257
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• 2003

This study proposes a single-channel satellite remote sensing algorithm for retrieving aerosol optical thickness over global ocean using FY-1C/1D data. An efficient lookup table (LUT)method is adopted in this algorithm to generate apparent reflectance in channel 1 and channel 2 of FY-1C/1D over ocean. The algorithm scale the apparent reflectance in cloud-free conditions to aerosol optical thickness using a state-of-art radiative transfer model 6S with input of the relative spectral response of channel 1 and 2 of FY-1C/1D. Monthly mean composite maps of the aerosol optical thickness have been obtained from FY-1C/1D global area coverage data between 2001 and 2003. Aerosol optical thickness maps can show the major aerosol source which are located off the west coast of northern and southern Africa, Arabian Sea and India Ocean. These result is very similar to other satellite sensors such as AVHRR and MODIS in the location area of heavy aerosol optical thickness over global ocean. The algorithm have been used to FY-1D operational performance and it is the first operational aerosol remote sensing product in China.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.52-55
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• 2011

We discuss the effect of stray light on a high-precision camera in an LEO(Low Earth Orbit) satellite. The critical objects and illumination objects were sorted to discover the stray light sources in the optical system. Scatter modeling was applied to determine a noise effect on the surface of a detector, and the relative flux of a signal and noise were also calculated. The stable range of reflectivity of the beam splitter was estimated for various scattering models.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.22.1-22.1
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.145.2-145.2
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Optical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1995.06a
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• pp.53-58
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• 1995

Examples of advanced digital electro-optic imaging systems for the satellite remote sensing applications are introduced including multispectral focal plane assembly for newly proposed 1-m spatial resolution capability.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.26-36
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• 2019

The precise alignment between optical components is required in high-resolution earth observation satellites. However, the misalignment of optical components occurs due to external factors such as severe satellite launch environment and space environment. A satellite optical system with a focus mechanism is required to compensate for the image quality degraded by these misalignments. This study designed, fabricated, aligned precisely, and carried out a performance tests for the image quality of the system. The satellite optical camera performance tests were carried out to check the image quality change by operating the focus mechanism and to analyze the satellite optical system MTF by photographing USAF target using the autocollimator. According to the experimental results, the misalignments can be compensated sufficiently with the focus mechanism. Finally the basic data for re-focusing algorithm of the optical system was obtained through this study.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.265-271
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• 2015

In this study, optical design for small satellite camera equipped with online optical compensation movements has been conducted. Satellite camera equipped with compensation movements at M2 mirror and focal plane can guarantee the MTF performance through the focal plane image stabilization and the on-orbit optical alignment. The designed optical system is schmidt-cassegrain type that has M1 mirror of a diameter 200mm, GSD 3.8m at an altitude of 700km, and 50 % MTF performance. The performance of the designed optical system has been analyzed through the method of ray aberration curve, spot diagram, and MTF. It has been found by the optical performance analysis that the designed optical system satisfies the optical requirements of satellite camera equipped with online optical compensation movements.