• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.379-386
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• 2015

This work presents fuel-optimal altitude maintenance of Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) spacecrafts experiencing non-negligible air drag and J2 perturbation. A pseudospectral (direct) method is first applied to roughly estimate an optimal fuel consumption strategy, which is employed as an initial guess to precisely determine itself. Based on the physical specifications of KOrea Multi-Purpose SATellite-2 (KOMPSAT-2), a Korean artificial satellite, numerical simulations show that a satellite ascends with full thrust at the early stage of the maneuver period and then descends with null thrust. While the thrust profile is presumably bang-off, it is difficult to precisely determine the switching time by using a pseudospectral method only. This is expected, since the optimal switching epoch does not coincide with one of the collocation points prescribed by the pseudospectral method, in general. As an attempt to precisely determine the switching time and the associated optimal thrust history, a shooting (indirect) method is then employed with the initial guess being obtained through the pseudospectral method. This hybrid process allows the determination of the optimal fuel consumption for LEO spacecrafts and their thrust profiles efficiently and precisely.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.11
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• pp.1112-1120
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• 2009

In this paper, the authors introduced a new approach to find the target orbits of each satellite in order to establish a temporary reconnaissance constellation mission to minimize the average revisit time (ART) while satisfying the constraint on fuel limit. Two distinct problems are dealt with: the first is to reconnoiter the local area with discriminating fuel constraint the second is to reconnoiter ground moving target with same fuel constraint. A preliminary effort in applying a genetic algorithm to those problems has also been demonstrated through simulation study. The results show that current ARTs of each mission are reduced by 41% and 42%, respectively, by relocating the orbit of each satellite. Naturally, the final result may depend on satellite orbits, sensor characteristics, allowable fuel cost, thruster capability, and maneuver strategies.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.42 no.12
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• pp.1051-1056
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• 2014

A Fuel Feeding Unit of electric propulsion system has been developed for the small-satellite applications. The fuel feeding unit stores the xenon gas with high pressure and density as a fuel. Xenon can affect to system stability since xenon has the transient condition under the critical point which is in ambient temperature on the launch environment. The functional and structural stability on the launch environment needs verification through the ground tests. The design points and verification tests of the system were discussed and test results were described on this text. The system stability on the launch environment was verified through these verification tests.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.456-459
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• 2011

The Dual-type Solenoid Valve was developed for a domestic production of a fuel-supply valve on the satellite attitude control thruster system. The satellite valve using a hydrazine as a fuel must fulfill the cycle life, shock, vibration and the environment of an extremely low temperature In addition to the basic performance of the response time, mass flow and leakage etc.. in this paper, the design, production and performance experiment using the nitrogen pneumatic equipment were conducted.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.11b
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• pp.497-501
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• 2000

One of the way to derive design parameters of the fuel feeding system in satellite is to analyze unsteady flow of liquid propellant (hydrazine) in the propulsion system. During steady thruster firing the flow rate is constant: if a thruster valve is abruptly shut down among a sets of thrusters, pressure spikes much higher than the initial tank pressure occur. This renders the fuel flow unsteady, and the fluid pressure and flow rate to oscillate. If the pressure spikes are high enough, there are possibilities that propellant explosively decomposes, thruster valves are damaged, and adiabatic detonation of the hydrazine propellant is potentially incurred. Reflected shockwaves could also affect the calibration and operation of the pressure transducers. These necessitate the analysis of unsteady flow in the propulsion system design, and the calculation results obtained through some governing parameter variation are presented in this work.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.51-56
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• 2002

Satellite propulsion system is employed for orbit transfer, orbit correction, and attitude control. The monopropellant feeding system in the low-earth-orbit satellite blowdowns fuel to the thrust chamber. The thrust produced by the thruster depends on fuel amount flowed into the combustion chamber. If the thruster valve be given on-off signal from on-board commander in the satellite, valve will be opened or closed. When the thrusters fire fuel flows through opened thruster valve, instantaneous stoppage of flow in according to valve actuation produces transient pressure due to pressure wave. This paper describes transient pressure predictions of the KOMPSAT-2 propulsion system resulting from latching valve and thrust control valve operations. The time-dependent set of the fluid mass and momentum equations are calculated by MOC.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.150-157
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• 1997

A precise determination of the fuel efficiency is important because North/South station keeping, which controls the inclination of the geostationary orbit, consumes most of the satellie fuel. We estimate the amount of fuel required during the lifetime of the KOREASAT when MFT(Minimum Fuel Target) technique is adopted, and the result is compared to those when MCT(Maximum Compensation Target) and TBCT(Track-Back Chord Target) technique are applied. From this computation, we find that if MFT technique is adopted, the lifetime of the satellite can be extended at least 45 and 15 days, respectively, compared to those consumed with MCT and TBCT technique.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.97-105
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• 2002

The mission life of a satellite determines the amount of fuel required on-board, while the total mass requirement limits the fuel to be loaded. Hence, for the design of thruster control loop, not only the satellite pointing accuracy but the saving of fuel is to be considered. In this paper, a two-step fuzzy controller is proposed for the thruster control loop to save fuel consumption. This approach combines requirements for pointing control accuracy with minimum fuel consumption into a fuzzy controller design. To demonstrate this approach, we have designed a fuzzy controller for the Sun Pointing Mode of KOMPSAT-1. The performance of this fuzzy controller design is compared with that of PD controller used for KOMPSAT-1.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.313-318
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• 2003

A communications satellite system placed in three-Lagrange points, $L_3$, $L_4$ and $L_5$, of the restricted three-body problem in Earth-Moon system is proposed in this paper. LEO satellite constellation has been another choice of communications system. The proposed system which is alternatives of limited geostationary orbit resources, has some weak points such as long distance from the Earth, relatively expensive launch cost, long delay time, more required power, and so on. It has good points like less efforts (fuel) for station keeping, less eclipses, etc. This system has limitations for applications to provide commercial services but it is still some attractive points.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.267-278
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• 2009

Automation of the key flight dynamics operations for the geostationary orbit satellite mission is analyzed and designed. The automation includes satellite orbit determination, orbit prediction, event prediction, and fuel accounting. An object-oriented analysis and design methodology is used for design of the automation system. Automation scenarios are investigated first and then the scenarios are allocated to use cases. Sequences of the use cases are diagramed. Then software components and graphical user interfaces are designed for automation. The automation will be applied to the Communication, Ocean, and Meteorology Satellite (COMS) flight dynamics system for daily routine operations.