• Current Industrial and Technological Trends in Aerospace
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.56-67
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• 2009

From 1990s, the lunar exploration programs, suspended over 20 years after the project Apollo's first successful human landing on the Moon in 1969, have been restarted according to a revived interest in Moon. In recent, several nations progress their own lunar exploration program successfully. In this report, to investigate the technical trends of the onboard propulsion system for the lunar orbiter, technical features related to the performance of the propulsion system of the lunar orbiters developed since 1990 are surveyed. In the future, it is expected that this technical report can provide a fundamental guideline for selecting a proper type of the onboard propulsion system for the domestic lunar orbiter.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.285-294
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• 2014

The uneven mass distribution of the Moon highly perturbs the lunar spacecrafts. This uneven mass distribution leads to peculiar dynamical features of the lunar orbiters. The critical inclination is the value of inclination which keeps the deviation of the argument of pericentre from the initial values to be zero. Considerable investigations have been performed for critical inclination when the gravity field is assumed to be symmetric around the equator, namely for oblate gravity field to which Earth's satellites are most likely to be subjected. But in the case of a lunar orbiter, the gravity field of mass distribution is rather asymmetric, that is, sectorial, and tesseral, harmonic coefficients are big enough so they can't be neglected. In the present work, the effects of the first sectorial and tesseral harmonic coefficients in addition to the first zonal harmonic coefficients on the critical inclination of a lunar artificial satellite are investigated. The study is carried out using the Hamiltonian framework. The Hamiltonian of the problem is cconstructed and the short periodic terms are eliminated using Delaunay canonical variables. Considering the above perturbations, numerical simulations for a hypothetical lunar orbiter are presented. Finally, this study reveals that the critical inclination is quite different from the critical inclination of traditional sense and/or even has multiple solutions. Consequently, different families of critical inclination are obtained and analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.90-101
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• 2011

From 1990s, the lunar exploration programs, suspended over 20 years after the project Apollo's first successful human landing on the Moon in 1969, have been restarted according to a revived interest in Moon. In recent, several nations progress their own lunar exploration program successfully. In this report, to investigate the technical trends of the onboard propulsion system for the lunar orbiter, technical features related to the performance of the propulsion system of the lunar orbiters developed since 1990 are surveyed. In the future, it is expected that this technical report can provide a fundamental guideline for selecting a proper type of the onboard propulsion system for the domestic lunar orbiter.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.309-318
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• 2019

The thermal design of the Lunar Terrain Imager (LUTI) on the Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) was performed and the soundness of the thermal design was verified by thermal analysis. The thermal environment of the lunar mission orbit should be reflected in the thermal design because the IR radiation of the lunar surface is important, unlike the earth orbit. The components or modules exposed to the outside of the satellite are insulated with MLI as much as possible, but the camera tube and the radiator are functionally exposed, so the thermal shield using the concept of radiation shape factor is mounted on the front to mitigate IR radiation. The IR emissivity is important in the front side of the radiator that receives little solar radiation, and components that are susceptible to thermal deformation such as the tube use a radiation heater to minimize the temperature gradient. Through the investigation of computational results, it was confirmed that the thermal design of LUTI is stable in various situations.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.123-129
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• 2023

This paper presents an analysis of the trans-lunar trajectory insertion performance of the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), the first lunar exploration spacecraft of the Republic of Korea. The successful launch conducted on August 4, 2022 (UTC), utilized the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The trans-lunar trajectory insertion performance plays a crucial role in ensuring the overall mission success by directly influencing the spacecraft's onboard fuel consumption. Following separation from the launch vehicle (LV), a comprehensive analysis of the trajectory insertion performance was performed by the KPLO flight dynamics (FD) team. Both orbit parameter message (OPM) and orbit determination (OD) solutions were employed using deep space network (DSN) tracking measurements. As a result, the KPLO was accurately inserted into the ballistic lunar transfer (BLT) trajectory, satisfying all separation requirements at the target interface point (TIP), including launch injection energy per unit mass (C3), right ascension of the injection orbit apoapsis vector (RAV), and declination of the injection orbit apoapsis vector (DAV). The precise BLT trajectory insertion facilitated the smoother operation of the KPLO's remainder mission phase and enabled the utilization of reserved fuel, consequently significantly enhancing the possibilities of an extended mission.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.12
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• pp.950-958
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• 2013

The Lunar orbiter is expected to be inserted into a ~300km low Earth orbit using Korea Space Launch Vehicle-II(KSLV-II). After the states are successfully determined with obtained tracking data, the Trans Lunar Injection(TLI) burn has to be done at appropriate epoch to send the lunar orbiter to the Moon. In this study, we describe in detail the mission scenario of the Korean lunar orbiter from the launch at NARO Space Center to lunar orbit insertion(LOI) stage following direct transfer trajectory. We investigate the launch window including launch azimuth, delta-V profile according to TLI and LOI burn positions. We also depict the visibility conditions of ground stations and solar eclipse duration to understand the characteristics of the direct transfer trajectory. This paper can be also helpful not only for overall understanding of ${\Delta}V$ trend by changing TOF and coasting time but for selecting launch epoch and control parameters to decrease fuel consumption.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.181-194
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• 2022

Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri, was successfully launched on 4 Aug. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station using a Space-X Falcon-9 rocket. Flight dynamics (FD) operational readiness was one of the critical parts to be checked before the flight. To demonstrate FD software's readiness and enhance the operator's contingency response capabilities, KPLO FD specialists planned, organized, and conducted four simulations and two rehearsals before the KPLO launch. For the efficiency and integrity of FD simulation and rehearsal, different sets of blind test data were prepared, including the simulated tracking measurements that incorporated dynamical model errors, maneuver execution errors, and other errors associated with a tracking system. This paper presents the simulation and rehearsal results with lessons learned for the KPLO FD operational readiness checkout. As a result, every functionality of FD operation systems is firmly secured based on the operation procedure with an enhancement of contingency operational response capability. After conducting several simulations and rehearsals, KPLO FD specialists were much more confident in the flight teams' ability to overcome the challenges in a realistic flight and FD software's reliability in flying the KPLO. Moreover, the results of this work will provide numerous insights to the FD experts willing to prepare deep space flight operations.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.185-192
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• 2021

This technical paper deals the practical transformation algorithms between several lunar reference frames which will be used for Korea pathfinder lunar orbiter (KPLO) flight operation. Despite of various lunar reference frame definitions already exist, use of a common transformation algorithm while establishing lunar reference frame is very important for all members related to KPLO mission. This is because use of slight different parameters during frame transformation may result significant misleading while reprocessing data based on KPLO flight dynamics. Therefore, details of practical transformation algorithms for the KPLO mission specific lunar reference frames is presented with step by step implementation procedures. Examples of transformation results are also presented to support KPLO flight dynamics data user community which is expected to give practical guidelines while post processing the data as their needs. With this technical paper, common understandings of reference frames that will be used throughout not only the KPLO flight operation but also science data reprocessing can be established. It is expected to eliminate, or at least minimize, unnecessary confusion among all of the KPLO mission members including: Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as well as other organizations participating in KPLO payload development and operation, or further lunar science community world-wide who are interested in KPLO science data post processing.

• 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 Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.199-215
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• 2023

The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), the first South Korea lunar exploration probe, successfully arrived at the Moon on December, 2022 (UTC), following a 4.5-month ballistic lunar transfer (BLT) trajectory. Since the launch (4 August, 2022), the KPLO magnetometer (KMAG) has carried out various observations during the trans-lunar cruise phase and a 100 km altitude lunar polar orbit. KMAG consists of three fluxgate magnetometers capable of measuring magnetic fields within a ± 1,000 nT range with a resolution of 0.2 nT. The sampling rate is 10 Hz. During the originally planned lifetime of one year, KMAG has been operating successfully while performing observations of lunar crustal magnetic fields, magnetic fields induced in the lunar interior, and various solar wind events. The calibration and offset processes were performed during the TLC phase. In addition, reliabilities of the KMAG lunar magnetic field observations have been verified by comparing them with the surface vector mapping (SVM) data. If the KPLO's mission orbit during the extended mission phase is close enough to the lunar surface, KMAG will contribute to updating the lunar surface magnetic field map and will provide insights into the lunar interior structure and lunar space environment.