• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.55.3-55.3
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• 2019

우리나라 최초의 우주탐사 프로그램인 Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO)는 1년의 임무기간동안 달과 달 주변의 우주환경에 대한 과학탐사 임무를 수행할 예정이다. 이를 위해서 1개에 기술 검증장비와 고해상도 카메라를 포함한 5개의 과학장비를 탑재할 예정이다. 이 중 고해상도 카메라인 LUTI(LUnar Terrain Imager)와 국내에서 개발한 3개의 과학탑재체(KGRS;감마선분광기, KMAG;자기장측정기, PolCam;광시야 편광카메라)가 획득한 과학자료는 일정기간(통상 1년)동안 비공개로 검보정이 이루어진 후 일반에게 공개(Public release)할 예정이다. 이러한 과학자료의 공개와 관리를 위해서 한국항공우주연구원은 KPLO 심우주 지상시스템 내에 과학자료의 공개 및 관리를 위한 KARI Planetary Data System(KPDS)을 개발하고 있다. KPDS는 미국 NASA의 PDS에서 개발하여 유럽, 일본 등에서 이미 행성탐사 과학자료의 표준으로 활용하고 있는 PDS4 표준을 준수하는 과학자료를 제공할 것이다. 본 발표를 통해서 KPDS의 운영개념과 과학자료 관리계획, 그리고 KPDS의 개발현황을 천문학계와 공유하여 KPLO에 의해서 획득된 과학자료가 많은 과학자들이 활용하여 높은 과학적 성과를 낼 수 있기를 기대한다.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.217-224
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• 2023

The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri, successfully entered its mission orbit on December 27, 2022 (UTC), and is currently performing its mission smoothly. To mitigate potential contingencies during the flight and to navigate the spacecraft into the desired lunar orbit, the KPLO flight dynamics (FD) team analyzed major trajectory-related contingencies that could lead to the violation of mission requirements and prepared operational procedures from the perspective of trajectory and FD. This paper presents the process of preparing contingency trajectory operations for the KPLO, including the identification of trajectory contingencies, prioritization results, and the development of recovery plans and operational procedures. The prepared plans were successfully applied to address minor contingencies encountered during actual operations. The results of this study will provide valuable insights to FD engineers preparing for space exploration mission operations.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.86-91
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• 2016

KARI(Korea Aerospace Research Institute) has been developing the KPLO(Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter) for Korean first lunar exploration, and analysing various subjects for the mission success. Especially the performance of the communication is one of important factors, because massive scientific and technical data acquired by multiple payloads might be transferred to ground stations on the Earth. In this paper, we explained the study on the 1-day average downlink capacity based on the visibility analysis between ground stations and KPLO, and described its results.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.97-108
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• 2016

Lunar rover plays an important role in lunar exploration. Especially, performance of rover wheel related to interaction with lunar soil is of great importance when it comes to optimization of rover's configuration. In this study, in order to investigate the motion performance of lunar rover's wheel on Korean Lunar Soil Simulant (KLS-1), a single wheel testbed was developed and used to carry out a series of experiments with two kinds of wheel with grousers and without grousers which were used to perform the experiments. Wheel traction performance was evaluated by using traction parameters such as drawbar pull, torque and sinkage correlated with slip ratio. The results showed that the single wheel testbed was suitable for evaluation of the performance of wheel and rover wheel with grousers which was likely to have higher traction performance than that without grousers in Korean Lunar soil simulant. The experimental results could be utilized in verification of the optimum wheel design and effectiveness of wheel traction for Korean lunar rover.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.37-43
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• 2011

Lunar exploration program has been prepared with the aim of launch in the 2020's. As part of it, a lunar lander demonstrator has been developed which is the model for verifying all the system, such as structure, propulsion and control system before launch to deep space. After verifying all the system, the demonstrator will be evaluated by flight test. This paper deals with path tracking controller based on thrusters for the demonstrator. For this, first we derive equations of motion according to the allocation of thrusters and design the path tracking controller. The signal generated from the controller is continuous so PWPF(Pulse-Width Pulse-Frequency) modulator is adopted for generating on/off signal. Finally MATLAB simulation is performed for evaluating the path tracking ability and the final landing velocity.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.131-140
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• 2014

Lava caves could be useful as outposts for the human exploration of the Moon. Lava caves or lava tubes are formed when the external surface of the lava flows cools more quickly to make a hardened crust over subsurface lava flows. The lava flow eventually ceases and drains out of the tube, leaving an empty space. The frail part of the ceiling of lava tube could collapse to expose the entrance to the lava tubes which is called a pit crater. Several pit craters with the diameter of around 100 meters have been found by analyzing the data of SELENE and LRO lunar missions. It is hard to use these pit craters for outposts since these are too large in scale. In this study, small scale pit craters which are fit for outposts have been investigated using the NAC image data of LROC. Several topographic patterns which are believed to be lunar caves have been found and the similar pit craters of the Earth were compared and analyzed to identify caves. For this analysis, the image data of satellites and aerial photographs are collected and classified to construct a database. Several pit craters analogous to lunar pit craters were derived and a morphological pit crater model was generated using the 3D printer based on this database.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.50 no.12
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• pp.877-888
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• 2022

Recently, as the CAPSTONE, a precursor mission for Lunar Gateway, was launched on a small launch vehicle for the purpose of demonstrating communications and navigation technology in the NRHO, large attention was brought to this event that enabled high-impact deep space mission using dedicated small launch vehicle and small spacecraft. In this study, we introduced the concept of a dual launch operation and examined the capability of the new concept in the exploration of the Moon, Mars and asteroid. It turned out a single launch is sufficient for the lunar low orbit mission up to around 247 kg, and the dual launch option can transport 215 kg and 183 kg to nearby destinations as such as Mars and astroid Apophis respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.34-41
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• 2014

A feasibility study of thrust control of hybrid propulsion system for lunar exploration is presented. The thrust control experiments were performed by controlling the oxidizer mass flow rate where the thrust modulation is carried by using a ball valve and a stepping motor. The gaseous oxygen (GOX) and the HDPE (High Density PolyEthylene) were used for the oxidizer and solid fuel, respectively. It was found that the thrust levels were stable without much fluctuation during the modulation period, and that the thrust was exactly controlled with target thrust modulation ratio of 53% and 32%.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.127-138
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• 2017

The current study designs the mission orbit of the lunar CubeSat spacecraft to measure the lunar local magnetic anomaly. To perform this mission, the CubeSat will impact the lunar surface over the Reiner Gamma swirl on the Moon. Orbit analyses are conducted comprising ${\Delta}V$ and error propagation analysis for the CubeSat mission orbit. First, three possible orbit scenarios are presented in terms of the CubeSat's impacting trajectories. For each scenario, it is important to achieve mission objectives with a minimum ${\Delta}V$ since the CubeSat is limited in size and cost. Therefore, the ${\Delta}V$ needed for the CubeSat to maneuver from the initial orbit toward the impacting trajectory is analyzed for each orbit scenario. In addition, error propagation analysis is performed for each scenario to evaluate how initial errors, such as position error, velocity error, and maneuver error, that occur when the CubeSat is separated from the lunar orbiter, eventually affect the final impact position. As a result, the current study adopts a CubeSat release from the circular orbit at 100 km altitude and an impact slope of $15^{\circ}$, among the possible impacting scenarios. For this scenario, the required ${\Delta}V$ is calculated as the result of the ${\Delta}V$ analysis. It can be used to practically make an estimate of this specific mission's fuel budget. In addition, the current study suggests error constraints for ${\Delta}V$ for the mission.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.49-63
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• 2021

The exploration of the solar system is carried out through various payloads, and accordingly, many research results are emerging. We tried to apply deep-learning as a method of studying the bodies of solar system. Unlike Earth observation satellite data, the data of solar system differ greatly from celestial bodies to probes and to payloads of each probe. Therefore, it may be difficult to apply it to various data with the deep-learning model, but we expect that it will be able to reduce human errors or compensate for missing parts. We have implemented a model that detects craters on the lunar surface. A model was created using the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) image and the provided shapefile as input values, and applied to the lunar surface image. Although the result was not satisfactory, it will be applied to the image of the permanently shadow regions of the Moon, which is finally acquired by ShadowCam through image pre-processing and model modification. In addition, by attempting to apply it to Ceres and Mercury, which have similar the lunar surface, it is intended to suggest that deep-learning is another method for the study of the solar system.