• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2004.10b
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• pp.285-289
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• 2004

An optimal interplanetary trajectory is presented for Human Outer Planet Exploration (HOPE) by using an advanced magnetoplasma spacecraft. A detailed optimization approach is formulated to utilize Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) engine with capabilities of variable specific impulse, variable engine efficiency, and engine on-off control. To design a round-trip trajectory for the mission, the characteristics of the spacecraft and its trajectories are analyzed. It is mainly illustrated that 30 MW powered spacecraft can make the mission possible in five-year round trip constraint around year 2045. The trajectories obtained in this study can be used for formulating an overall concept for the mission.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.101.1-101.1
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• 2012

Interplanetary dust particles are observable as zodiacal light, which is the sunlight scattered by the interplanetary dust particles. The origins of interplanetary dust particles are still in question because they are eroded by Poynting-Robertson photon drag and mutual collisions among dust particles. The small-scale structures in the zodiacal light provided a clue to specify their origins. Asteroidal debris were detected as band-like structures (dust bands), and the cometary large particles were detected as narrow trails (dust trails). However, little is confirmative about their detailed origins and mineralogical compositions because of the lack of observational data particularly in the optical wavelength. We made a high-resolution optical zodiacal light map based on the CCD observations at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. We analyzed data taken on November 12, 2004. After the data reduction, such as flat fielding and subtraction of airglow emissions, we succeeded in the construction of the zodiacal light map with the spatial resolution of 3' in the solar elongation between 45 degree and 180 degree. This is the highest resolution map in the visible wavelength so far. In this map, we confirmed the dust bands structures near the ecliptic plane. We will discuss about the similarities and the differences between optical and infrared dust bands.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.63-65
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• 2017

The zodiacal light emission is the thermal emission from the interplanetary dust and the dominant diffuse radiation in the mid- to far-infrared wavelength region. Even in the far-infrared, the contribution of the zodiacal emission is not negligible at the region near the ecliptic plane. The AKARI far-infrared all-sky survey covered 97% of the whole sky in four photometric bands with band central wavelengths of 65, 90, 140, and $160{\mu}m$. AKARI detected the small-scale structure of the zodiacal dust cloud, such as the asteroidal dust bands and the circumsolar ring, in far-infrared wavelength region. Although the most part of the zodiacal light structure in the AKARI far-infrared all-sky image can be well reproduced with the DIRBE zodiacal light model, there are discrepancies in the small-scale structures. In particular, the intensity and the ecliptic latitude of the peak position of the asteroidal dust bands cannot be reproduced precisely with the DIRBE models. The AKARI observational data during more than one year has advantages over the 10-month DIRBE data in modeling the full-sky zodiacal dust cloud. The resulting small-scale zodiacal light structure template has been used to subtract the zodiacal light from the AKARI all-sky maps.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.1472-1488
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• 2019

Critical elements in the China's Lunar Exploration reside in that the lunar rover travels over the surrounding undetermined environment and it conducts scientific exploration under the ground control via teleoperation system. Such an interplanetary transportation mission teleoperation system belongs to the ground application system in deep space mission, which performs terrain reconstruction, visual positioning, path planning, and rover motion control by receiving telemetry data. It plays a vital role in the whole lunar exploration operation and its so-called trustworthy evidence must be assessed before and during its implementation. Taking ISO standards and China's national military standards as trustworthy evidence source, the net assessment model and net assessment method of teleoperation system are established in this paper. The multi-dimensional net assessment model covering the life cycle of software is defined by extracting the trustworthy evidences from trustworthy evidence source. The qualitative decisions are converted to quantitative weights through the net assessment method (NAM) combined with fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and entropy weight method (EWM) to determine the weight of the evidence elements in the net assessment model. The paper employs the teleoperation system for interplanetary transportation as a case study. The experimental result drawn shows the validity and rationality of net assessment model and method. In the final part of this paper, the untrustworthy elements of the teleoperation system are discovered and an improvement scheme is established upon the "net result". The work completed in this paper has been applied in the development of the teleoperation system of China's Chang'e-3 (CE-3) "Jade Rabbit-1" and Chang'e-4 (CE-4) "Jade Rabbit-2" rover successfully. Besides, it will be implemented in China's Chang'e-5 (CE-5) mission in 2019. What's more, it will be promoted in the Mars exploration mission in 2020. Therefore it is valuable to the development process improvement of aerospace information system.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.302-318
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• 2021

A basic study was conducted on how to determine the launch timing of a space probe targeting an Earth-approaching asteroid. In the future, when a probe mission targeting an asteroid approaching Earth's orbit is conducted in Korea, in order to determine the launch time, an appropriate solution should be obtained by applying the Global Optimization technique. For this, accurate current orbit information of each asteroid must be obtained first, and prior scenarios such as Earth's orbit information, main engine performance information of the probe and launch vehicle, the number of gravity-assisted maneuvers, and maximum flight time limit should be discussed. Also, the criteria for optimization should be determined first. In this paper, based on these prerequisites and information, a method for finding the launch time of an asteroid probe was studied using the open source software such as PyKEP and Evolutionary Mission Trajectory Generator (EMTG) which are the programs for interplanetary trajectory generation purpose.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.42-49
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• 2017

Delay- and Disruption-Tolerant Network (DTN) has been considered as a key technology to overcome main challenges in interplanetary communications such as an intermittent connectivity and high bit error rates. The lack of end-to-end connectivity between source and destination results in long and variable delays and data loss, hence the Internet Protocols cannot operate properly in such environments because it requires an end-to-end connectivity. The DTN, which utilizes 'store-and-forward' message passing scheme between nodes, can overcome the lack of end-to-end connectivity in Interplanetary Network (IPN). In this paper, DTN is applied to 3-hop relay IPN, where messages are transmitted from Earth ground station to Lunar lander through Earth satellite and Lunar orbiter. ONE simulator is used to reflect the real environment of IPN and an efficient resource management method are analyzed to guarantee the message delivery by optimizing a message TTL (Time to Live), buffer size and message fragmentation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2002.10b
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• pp.389-396
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• 2002

In XXI century it is necessary to expect the recommencement and development of activities on mastering the Moon. In the long term it is construction of manned lunar bases with industrial, astrophysical, procuring, repair equipment and services. Interplanetary flights from the Moon demand smaller power expenditures, than from the Earth, therefore it is favourable to use its surface for the construction of space-vehicle launching sites. Flights of devices in libration points in the system 'Earth - Moon' are considered. Experience of engineering system creation for the Moon displays the great complexity in provision of serviceability and reliability of friction units. Open friction units should operate under following conditions on the Moon: pressure of environment (vacuum) $p\;>10\;^{-10}$ Pa; wide range of temperature change $+150^{\circ}C\;...170^{\circ}C$; high evaporability of lubricants; influence of temperature gradients and warping of constructions; sublimation of elements of constructional materials; irradiation of different physical nature; effect of micrometeorites; reduced gravitation; influence of abrasive particles of lunar ground; requirements on minimization of size and weight characteristics of a construction (high tension); undesirability (impossibility) of application of liquid and plastic lubricants; vibration, shock, acoustic loadings during start and landings to the Earth; difficulties in repair-regenerative operations in conditions of the Moon etc. Adhesive interaction of conjugated surfaces is the principal reason of possible failures of rubbed units on the Moon. In the research of the Moon automatic interplanetary stations of 'Luna' (USSR), 'Surveyer', 'Apollo' (USA) series were used. Stations executed functions of flying, landing, artificial satellites of the Moon, moon-rovers and manned spacecrafts such as 'Apollo'. The experimental- theoretical researches carried out in the sixtieth years on tribology for conditions of the Moon appeared to be rather useful to engineering of an outer space exploration and the decision of complex problems for the friction units operating in extreme conditions on the Earth. For the creation of highly loaded friction units for the long service life on the Moon it is required not only to use accumulated experience and designed technologies, but also to carry out wide scientific research.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.153-166
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• 2004

Interplanetary trajectories using the gravity assists are studied for future Korean interplanetary missions. Verifications of the developed softwares and results were performed by comparing data from ESA's Mars Express mission and previous results. Among the Jupiter exploration mission scenarios, multi-planet gravity assist mission to Jupiter (Earth-Mars-Earth-Jupiter Gravity Assist, EMEJGA trajectory) requires minimum launch energy ($C_3$) of 29.231 $Km^2$/$S^2$ with 4.6 years flight times. Others, such as direct mission and single-planet(Mars) gravity assist mission, requires launch energy ($C_3$) of 75.656 $Km^2$/$S^2$ with 2.98 years flight times and 63.590 $Km^2$/$S^2$ with 2.33 years flight times, respectively. These results show that the planetary gravity assists can reduce launch energy, while EMEJGA trajectory requires the longer flight time than the other missions.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.58.1-59
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• 2021

Exploration of asteroids' internal structure is essential for understanding their evolutional history. It also provides a fundamental information about the history of coalescence and collision of the solar system. Among several models of the internal structures, the rubble-pile model, confirmed by the near-Earth asteroid (25143) Itokawa by Hayabusa mission [1], is now widely regarded as the most common to asteroids with size ranging from 200 m to 10 km [2]. On the contrary, monolithic and core-mantle structures are also possible for small asteroids [3]. It is, however, still challenging to look through the interior of a target object using remote-sensing devices. In this presentation, we introduce our ongoing research conducted at Seoul National and propose an idea to infer the internal structure of Apophis using available instruments. Itokawa's research provides an important benchmark for Apophis exploration because both asteroids have similar size and composition [4][5]. We have conducted research on Itokawa's evolution in terms of collision and space weathering. Space weathering is the surface alteration process caused by solar wind implantation and micrometeorite bombardment [6]. Meanwhile, resurfacing via a collision acts as a counter-process of space weathering by exposing fresh materials under the matured layer and lower the overall degree of space weathering. Therefore, the balance of these two processes determine the space weathering degrees of the asteroid. We focus on the impact evidence on the boulder surface and found that space weathering progresses in only 100-10,000 years and modifies the surface optical properties (Jin & Ishiguro, KAS 2020 Fall Meeting). It is important to note that the timescale is significantly shorter than the Itokawa's age, suggesting that the asteroid can be totally processed by space weathering. Accordingly, our result triggers a further discussion about why Itokawa indicates a moderately fresh spectrum (Sq-type denotes less matured than S-type). For example, Itokawa's smooth terrains show a weaker degree of space weathering than other S-type asteroids [7]. We conjecture that the global seismic shaking caused by collisions with >1 mm-sized interplanetary dust particles induces granular convection, which hinders the progression of space weathering [8]. Note that the efficiency of seismic wave propagation is strongly dependent on the internal structure of the asteroid. Finally, we consider possible approaches to investigate Apophis's internal structure. The first idea is studying the space weathering age, as conducted for Itokawa. If Apophis indicates a younger age, the internal structure would have more voids [9]. In addition, the 2029 close encounter with Earth provides a rare natural opportunity to witness the contrast between before and after the event. If the asteroid exhibits a slight change in shape and space weathering degree, one can determine the physical structure of the internal materials (e.g., rubble-pile monolithic, thick or thin regolith layer, the cohesion of the materials). We will also consider a possible science using a seismometer.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.117.1-117.1
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• 2011

We present the smoothness of mid-infrared sky brightness from the Japanese infrared astronomical satellite, AKARI observations. AKARI monitored the north ecliptic pole (NEP) during its cold phase with nine wavebands from 2.4 to 24 ${\mu}m$, out of which six mid-infrared bands are used in this study. Simple sinusoidal fit to the seasonal variation of the sky brightness shows that the mid-infrared brightness towards the NEP is not affected by small-scale features of the interplanetary dust cloud. We applied the power spectrum analysis to the images to search for the fluctuation of sky brightness. The fluctuation powers at 200 arcsecond are estimated to be at most $1.58{\pm}0.33\;nW\;m^{-2}sr^{-1}$ or 0.13% of the total brightness at $7{\mu}m$ and a tleast $0.64{\pm}0.11\;nW\;m^{-2}sr^{-1}$ or 0.02% at $18{\mu}m$. The residual fluctuations at a few arcminute scales at short mid-infrared wavelengths (7, 9, and 11 ${\mu}m$) are consistent with those expected from the diffuse galactic light. At long mid-infrared wavelengths (15, 18, and 24 ${\mu}m$) the measured fluctuations are comparable to or smaller than the one caused by photon noise and their sources are not identified. We conclude that the upper limit of the fluctuation in the zodiacal light is about 0.02% of the sky brightness.