• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.13-19
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• 2023

Lunar ice is a resource available for future human exploration in deep space and long-term extraterrestrial habitat. However, the origin and nature of lunar ice remains unclear. In addition to remote sensing, international space agencies are competitively planning and conducting missions for lunar surface exploration to determine the existence and resource extent of lunar ice. If a sufficient amount of lunar ice is confirmed, its future in-situ resource utilization is expected to be greatly beneficial. However, due to ice extraction, settlement may occur, which should be taken into account from a geotechnical engineering perspective. Herein, experimental investigations of the potential settlement caused by lunar ice extraction were conducted and different textures of lunar ice were simulated. Consequently, it was confirmed that significant settlement occurs even at the initial water content of ~10% in lunar regolith simulant-ice-mixed soil.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.65.2-65.2
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• 2014

태양 빛이 달 표면에서 반사될 때는 일부가 편광 된다. 이러한 월면 편광은 달 표토층 입자의 크기와 성분을 알려주는 중요한 정보이나, 이전의 달 궤도선에서는 한 번도 탐사되지 않았다. 또한 달 탐사임무에 있어 틈새시장인 월면 특이지역 연구에도 편광이 중요한 기초자료를 제공한다는 사실이 최근 밝혀졌다. 이에 본 연구진은 한국형 달 탐사선을 위한 우리나라 고유의 창의적 과학 임무 중 하나로 <월면 다파장 편광 탐사>를 제안하며, 이러한 탐사에 필요한 기초연구 및 선행연구를 수행하고 있다. 본 발표에서는 우리가 수행한 지상으로부터의 다파장 편광 관측 결과를 보고하고, 최근 시작한 랩실험과 컴퓨터 시뮬레이션 실험에 대해 소개할 것이다.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.8
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• pp.51-58
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• 2021

South Korea, as the 10th country to join the Artemis program led by NASA, is actively supporting various researches related to the lunar exploration. In particular, the utilization of water as a resource in the Moon has been focused since it was discovered that ice exists at the lunar pole as a form of frozen soil. Information on the thermal conductivity of lunar regolith can be used to estimate the existence for ice water extraction by thermal mining. In this study, the vacuum pressure effect on thermal conductivity of KLS-1 was investigated with a DTVC (Dusty Thermal Vacuum Chamber). The reliability of KLS-1 was reconfirmed through comparison with thermal conductivity of known standard lunar regolith simulants such as JSC-1A. An empirical equation to assess thermal conductivity considering dry unit weight and vacuum pressure was proposed. The results from this study can be implemented to simulate lunar cryogenic environment using the DTVC.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.217-240
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• 2021

Upon the human exploration era of the Moon, this paper introduces lunar topography and geologic fundamentals to space scientists. The origin of scientific terminology for the lunar topography was briefly summarized, and the extension of the current Korean terminology is suggested. Specifically, we suggest the most representative lunar topography that are useful to laymen as 1 ocean (Oceanus Procellarum), 10 maria (Mare Imbrium, Mare Serenitatis, Mare Tranuillitatis, Mare Nectaris, Mare Fecundatis, Mare Crisium, Mare Vaporium, Mare Cognitum, Mare Humorum, Mare Nubium), 6 great craters (Tyco, Copernicus, Kepler, Aristachus, Stebinus, Langrenus). We also suggest Korean terms for highland, maria, mountains, crater, rille, rima, graben, dome, lava tube, wrinkle ridge, trench, rupes, and regolith. In addition, we introduce the standard model for the lunar interior and typical rocks. According to the standard model on the basis of historical impact events, the lunar geological eras are classified as Pre-Nectarian, Nectarian, Imbrian, Erathostenesian, and Copernican in chronologic order. Finally, we summarize the latest discovery records on the water on the Moon, and introduce the concept of water extraction from the lunar soil, which is to be developed by the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM).

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.51.2-51.2
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• 2018

Polarimetry is a powerful technique to investigate the physical properties of surface materials on airless bodies in the solar system. It is known that the degree of linear polarization changes as a function of the phase angle (the angle between Sun-target-Observer). Especially, the dependency of the polarization degree at large phase angle allows us to obtain information related to the particle size and porosity, which is difficult to be determined via other observation techniques (i.e., photometry and spectroscopy). However, despite the advantage, only a few asteroids were observed with polarimetric devices at large phase angles. Here, we present our new polarimetric research of Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) observed at the large phase angles. Among the NEAs, we focus on S- and Q-type asteroids, which include: (331471) 1984 QY1, (90075) 2002 VU94, and (66391) 1999 KW4. The observation was conducted using the Pirka 1.6-m Telescope at the Nayoro Observatory of Hokkaido University at the phase angles ${\alpha}{\sim}100degree$, which provides us the maximum polarization degrees of these objects. Considering the observational results together with two objects ((1566) Icarus and (4179) Toutatis) in reference papers [1], [2], we will discuss the implication of the regolith size on their surfaces.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.1-11
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• 2020

A CIA analysis (A-CN-K and A-CNK-FM ternary diagram) indicates that, unlike the general granitic hills of the Korean Peninsula, the chemical weathering of the granitic grus (sandy regolith) in the eastern Jincheon basin is variable in geomorphic site except the Chuncheon basin. In the study area, there are three types of hills, such as; inner hills, linear isolated hills, and outer hills. The weathered mantles of the outer hills and linear isolated hills are weakly altered, whereas the inner hill, the Bonghyeon profile, shows a stronger chemical loss of the compositions approximating saprolite. There are small differences between the outer hills and linear isolated hills. The Geumwang site is considered fresh rock due to a low lever of alteration, although its sampling profile shows sandy weathering mantles. In the profiles of the Masan and Mugeuks sites, the lower part of weathering mantles has not experienced a significant level of component loss, but the upper regoliths have substantially been modified. The alteration of the hills occurs by chemical loss of CaO and Na₂O. K₂O exhibited little variation at all sampling suites and it has not changed into saprolite.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.324-331
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• 2018

The thermal environment on lunar surface is more severe than that of earth's surface or low earth orbit because of the long daytime and nighttime due to 28 days of rotation cycle of moon. Thus, analyzing heat flux on lunar lander at potential landing sites is important to determine the landing site in its initial design phase. In this study, thermal model of lunar regolith that can simulate lunar surface temperature was constructed for analyzing thermal characteristics according to the potential landing sites of lunar lander. The heat flux analyses were performed various latitudes of equator, mid-latitude, polar regions, lunar mare and highland. In addition, we also investigated the heat flux of lunar lander when it is landed on adjacent area to hill.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.661-667
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• 2005

It was preliminarily considered that Jangdo wetland was a concave landform formed by the weathering of granite intruding Precambrian silicified metasedimentary rocks. Various granite-weathered topography was observed. The formation scenario of Jangdo wetland is as follows. By flood or slope mass movement of regolith, rock fragments were moved to form a low-relief slope landform. As a result, wetland was formed. By analyzing the slope soil and wetland sediment, we conjectured that Jangdo wetland depended on the influence of peripheral slope soil. In these concavelandform environment, the supply of water and organic materials was sustained for a long time to form a organicnondegradable wetland environment. In addition, the plants appropriate to this wetland environment were settled to thicken the wetland. This is how the present Jangdo wetland was thought to be formed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.45 no.9
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• pp.766-774
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• 2017

When a plume flow exhausted from a lunar lander descent engine impinges on the lunar surface, regolith particles on the lunar surface will be dispersed due to a plume-surface interaction. If the dispersed particles collide with the lunar lander, some adverse effects such as a performance degradation can be caused. Thus, this study tried to predict the plume flow behaviors using the CFD methods. A nozzle inside region was analyzed by a continuum flow model based on the Navier-Stokes equations while the plume behaviors of the outside nozzle was performed by comparing and analyzing the individual results using the continuum flow model and the DSMC method. As a result, it was possible to establish an optimum procedure of the plume analysis for the lunar lander descent engine in the vacuum condition. In the future, it is expected to utilize the present results for the development of the Korean lunar lander.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.123-137
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• 2012

Reddish superficial materials in southern area of Korean Peninsula have been defined as lateritic red soil in Korea. In A-CN-K ternary plots, CaO and $Na_2O$ show similar linear distribution along a A-K line to kaolinite profile and laterite in southern Spain and Cameroon, respectively, and it means strong alteration. But $K_2O$ is weak alteration, plotting between muscovite and illite zone. Granitic reddish weathering mantles in study area show bulk distribution in center when plotted in A-CNK-Fm space, in contrast to laterite in Cameroon, plotting linearly in the middle along a A-FM line. Therefore, alteration of reddish saprolites in Southern Korea have not progressed as much as laterite. To define Reddish saprolite in southern Korean Peninsula as a lateritic red soil, more many studies are necessary.