• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.49-63
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• 2017

Solar cells have widely been utilized for a satellite to convert sunlight energy into electricity in space. Many different types of solar cells appropriate for each satellite program are available in current markets, which enables us to construct a solar array light and small often required from a low Earth orbit (LEO) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite. Thus, it is important to choose a proper solar cell satisfying the requirements of mass and size for the solar array. In this article, we have surveyed typical suppliers and have discussed some characteristics of solar cells. Conceptual design examples of the solar array for LEO SAR satellites using several types of solar cells have been performed to show the pros and cons of solar cells by comparison of the total mass and size necessary for the solar array.

• 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 Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.37-50
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• 1997

We consider the channel allocation problem for the earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems. This problm is known to be NP-complete and a couple of heuristic algorithms have been developed. In this paper, we convert the problem into a simpler form through the concept of pattern. And we suggest another algorithm based on Simulated Annealing for this simplified problem. The results of performance comparison show that our method works very well. Simulation results are reported.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.93.2-93.2
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• 2011

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has measured space environment and its effects on spacecraft and astronaut since 1987. At present, we have operated space environment monitors onboard one GEO spacecraft, one QZO spacecraft, and two LEO spacecrafts. The obtained space environment data has been gathered into the Space Environment and Effects System database (SEES, http://sees.tksc.jaxa.jp/). In this presentation, measurement result of space environment in low earth orbit obtained by the Daichi satellite from 2006 through 2011 is reported as well as recent activities in space environment engineerings in JAXA. The Technical Data Acquisition Equipment (TEDA) on board the Daichi satellite (Advanced Land Observing Satellite: ALOS) had been operated in low earth orbit at 700 km altitude with 98 degree inclination from February 2006 until April 2011. The TEDA consists of the Light Particle Telescope and the Heavy Ion Telescope. The operation period of the Daichi satellite was through the solar-activity minimum period. The space radiation environment around the Daichi satellite had been almost stable. However, large solar flares followed by CMEs sometimes disturbed the space radiation environment in the orbit of the Daichi satellite. In addition, high speed solar wind often flowed and modulated the electron flux in the horn region. On the other hand, a little variation was seen in the SAA region.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.51-57
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• 2016

Many kinds of telemetry should be monitored to check the state of spacecraft and it leads the time consumption. However, it is very important to define the status of satellite in short time because the contact number and time of low earth orbit satellite is limited. Also, on-board fault management should be prepared for non-contact operation because of the sever space environment. In this paper, on-board and ground autonomous operation method for the safety enhancement is described. Immediate fault detection and response is possible in ground by explicit anomaly detection through satellite event and error information. Also, satellite operation assistant system is proposed for ground autonomy that collect event sequence in accordance with related telemetry and recommend or execute an appropriate action for abnormal state. Critical parameter monitoring method with checking rate, mode and threshold is developed for on-board autonomous fault management. If the value exceeds the limit, pre-defined command sequence is executed.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.173-183
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• 2023

This paper deals with a routing algorithm which can find the best communication route to a desired point considering disconnected links in the LEO (low earth orbit) satellite networks. If the LEO satellite networks are dynamic, the number and distribution of the disconnected links are varying, which makes the routing problem challenging. To solve the problem, in this paper, we propose a routing method based on Dueling DQN which is one of the reinforcement learning algorithms. The proposed method was successfully conducted and verified by showing improved performance by reducing convergence times and converging more stably compared to other existing reinforcement learning-based routing algorithms.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• v.1
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• pp.141-144
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• 2006

The deviations in the injection orbital parameters, resulting from launcher dispersions, need to be estimated and used for autonomous satellite operations. For the proposed small satellite mission of the university there will be two GPS receivers onboard the satellite to provide the instantaneous orbital state to the onboard data handling system. In order to meet the power requirements, the satellite will be sun-tracking whenever there is no imaging operation. For imaging activities, the satellite will be maneuvered to nadir-pointing mode. Due to such different modes of orientation the geometry for the GPS receivers will not be favorable at all times and there will be instances of poor geometry resulting in no output from the GPS receivers. Onboard the satellite, the orbital information should be continuously available for autonomous switching on/off of various subsystems. The paper presents the strategies to make use of small arcs of data from GPS receivers to compute the mean orbital parameters and use the updated orbital parameters to calculate the position and velocity whenever the same is not available from GPS receiver. Thus the navigation message from the GPS receiver, namely the position vector in Earth-Centered-Earth-Fixed (ECEF) frame, is used as measurements. As for estimation, two techniques - (1) batch least squares method, and (2) Kalman Filter method are used for orbit estimation (in real time). The performance of the onboard orbit estimation has been assessed based on hardware based multi-channel GPS Signal simulator. The results indicate good converge even with short arcs of data as the GPS navigation data are generally very accurate and the data rate is also fast (typically 1Hz).

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.151-151
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• 2006

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.167-180
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• 2008

The resolution of Earth images taken from a satellite has close relation with satellite's altitude. If a satellite has lower altitude, it gets a picture having better resolution. However the satellite will be exposed to heavier air drag and will spend more fuel to maintain its altitude for a desired mission. Therefore, in this study, the required fuel to maintain very low earth orbit(LEO) with severe air drag is analyzed using optimization method such as collocation method. The required fuel to maintain the low altitude has significantly increased as the mission altitude is lowered and the solar activity is maximized. This study also shows that the fuel reduced by increasing the period of the satellite maneuver is very small, and that slightly increasing the satellite's mission altitude is much effective in reducing the amount of fuel to maintain its altitude. The calculated fuel to maintain very low earth orbit in this study would give useful information in planning the budget of fuel and cost for LEO satellites.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.71-76
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• 2005

The KOMPSAT-1 satellite, launched into a circular sun synchronous orbit on Dec. 21, 1999, entered its$6^{th}$year of successful operation this year. The purposes of the mission are to collect earth images (6.6 m resolution), multi-spectral images of the ocean, and to collect information on the particle environment of the low earth orbit. For normal operation, KOMPSAT-1 orbits are determined using GPS navigation solutions. However, at the start of the life of KOMPSAT-1, the 11-year solar activity cycle was at a maximum. Solar flux was maintained at this level until 2002, and thereafter reduced to a moderate level by 2004. Thus, the OD (Orbit Determination) accuracy has varied according to the solar activity. This paper presents the degree to which the OD accuracy could be degraded during a high solar activity period compared with that of a (relatively) low solar activity period. We investigated the effect of the use of solve-for parameters such as a drag coefficient ($C_D$), solar radiation coefficient ($C_R$), and the general accelerations ($G_A$) on OD accuracy with solar activity. For the evaluation of orbit determination accuracy, orbit overlap comparison is used since no independent orbits of comparable accuracy are available for comparison. The effect of the use of a box-wing model instead of a constant cross-sectional area is also investigated.