• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.311-314
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• 2005

We report the current status of Japanese lunar exploration SELENE (SELenological and ENgineering Explorer). As of the end of 2004, scientific instruments onboard the Main Orbiter are under final checkout before they are provided to the proto-flight-model (PFM) integration test. Also, we present the future perspectives of the lunar based instruments and facilities. 'In-situ Lunar Orientation Mea-surement (ILOM)' experiment measures the lunar rotation with high accuracy by tracking stars on the Moon with a small photo-zenith-tube type optical telescope. A basic idea of a radio telescope array of very low frequency range on the lunar far-side is also mentioned.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.327-333
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• 2019

For sustainable lunar exploration, the most required resources should be procured on site because it takes tremendous cost to transfer the resources from the Earth to the Moon. The technologies required for use of lunar resources refers to In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). As the ISRU technology cannot be verified in the Earth, a lunar surface environment simulator is necessary to be prepared in advance. The Moon has no atmosphere, and the average temperature of the lunar surface reaches to $107^{\circ}C$ during the daytime and $-153^{\circ}C$ at night. The lunar surface is also covered with very fine soils with sharp particles that are electrostatically charged by solar radiation and solar wind. In this research, generation of vacuum environment with lunar soil mass in a chamber and simulation of electrostatically charged soils are taken into consideration. It was successful to make a vacuum environment of a chamber including lunar soils without soil disturbance by controlling evacuation rate of a vacuum chamber. And an experiment procedure for simulating the charged lunar soil was suggested by theoretical consideration in charging phenomena on lunar dust.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2013

Human spaceflight experience in extra-vehicular activity (EVA) is limited to two regimes: the micro-gravity environment of Earth orbit, and the lunar surface environment at one-sixth of Earth's gravity. Future human missions to low-gravity bodies, including asteroids, comets, and the moons of Mars, will require EVA techniques that are beyond the current experience base. In order to develop robust approaches for exploring these small bodies, the dynamics associated with human exploration on low-gravity surface must be characterized. This paper examines the translational and rotational motion of an astronaut on the surface of a small body, and it is shown that the low-gravity environment will pose challenges to the surface mobility of an astronaut, unless new tools and EVA techniques are developed. Possibilities for addressing these challenges are explored, and utilization of the International Space Station to test operational concepts and hardware in preparation for a low-gravity surface EVA is discussed.

• 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.