• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.77-82
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• 2010

The tracking performance of the big tracking antenna system using Radio Frequency is very important for the tracking and position measuring for the flight vehicle, but the precise measuring of the tracking performance is not easy, especially for the big antenna system such as ground telemetry antenna or tracking radar in space application because it's characteristics could be different in accordance with the antenna direction. In this paper, the error factors impacting on the tracking performance (pointing accuracy and tracking accuracy) and the ranges of each factor are reviewed, and the simple and efficient method to measure the tracking performance is introduced which using low earth orbit as the signal source. Finally, the measurement results for the telemetry ground antenna in NARO Space Center are reviewed.

• Journal of Communications and Networks
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.451-460
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• 2006

Since low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations have important advantages over geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) systems such as low propagation delay, low power requirements, and more efficient spectrum allocation due to frequency reuse between satellites and spotbeams, they are considered to be used to complement the existing terrestrial fixed and wireless networks in the evolving global mobile network. However, one of the major problems with LEO satellites is their higher speed relative to the terrestrial mobile terminals, which move at lower speeds but at more random directions. Therefore, handover management in LEO satellite networks becomes a very challenging task for supporting global mobile communication. Efficient and accurate methods are needed for LEO satellite handovers between the moving footprints. In this paper, we propose a new seamless handover management scheme for LEO satellites (SeaHO-LEO), which utilizes the handover management schemes aiming at decreasing latency, data loss, and handover blocking probability. We also present another interesting handover management model called satellite mobility pattern based handover management in LEO satellites (PatHO-LEO) which takes mobility pattern of both satellites and mobile terminals into account to minimize the handover messaging traffic. This is achieved by the newly introduced billboard manager which is used for location updates of mobile users and satellites. The billboard manager makes the proposed handover model much more flexible and easier than the current solutions, since it is a central server and supports the management of the whole system. To show the performance of the proposed algorithms, we run an extensive set of simulations both for the proposed algorithms and well known handover management methods as a baseline model. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithms are very promising for seamless handover in LEO satellites.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.95-100
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• 2013

In this paper we examine a total of 16 dipolarization events that were observed by THEMIS spacecraft in space close to geosynchronous orbit, r < ${\sim}7\;R_E$. For the identified events, we examine the characteristics of the plasma flows and associated bubbles as defined based on $pV^{5/3}$, where p is the plasma pressure and V the volume of unit magnetic flux. First, we find that the flow speed in the near-geosynchronous region is very low, mostly within a few tens of km/s, except for a very few events for which the flow can rise up to ~200 km/s but only very near the dipolarization onset time. Second, the bubble parameter, $pV^{5/3}$, decreases by a much smaller factor after the dipolarization onset than for the events in the farther out tail region. We suggest that the magnetic dipolarization in the near-geosynchronous region generates or is associated with only very weak plasma bubbles. Such bubbles in the near-geosynchronous region would penetrate earthward only by a small distance before they stop at an equilibrium position or drift around the Earth.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.83-87
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• 2018

An object in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is affected by many environmental conditions unlike earth's surface such as, Atomic oxygen (AO), Ultraviolet Radiation (UV), thermal cycling, High Vacuum and Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris (MMOD) impacts. The effect of all these parameters have to be carefully considered when designing a space structure, as it could be very critical for a space mission. Polybenzimidazole (PBI) is a high performance thermoplastic polymer that could be a suitable material for space missions because of its excellent resistance to these environmental factors. A thin coating of PBI polymer on the carbon epoxy composite laminate (referred as CFRP) was found to improve the energy absorption capability of the laminate in event of a hypervelocity impact. However, the overall efficiency of the shield also depends on other factors like placement and orientation of the laminates, standoff distances and the number of shielding layers. This paper studies the effectiveness of using a PBI coating on the front bumper in a multi-shock shield design for enhanced hypervelocity impact resistance. A thin PBI coating of 43 micron was observed to improve the shielding efficiency of the CFRP laminate by 22.06% when exposed to LEO environment conditions in a simulation chamber. To study the effectiveness of PBI coating in a hypervelocity impact situation, experiments were conducted on the CFRP and the PBI coated CFRP laminates with projectile velocities between 2.2 to 3.2 km/s. It was observed that the mass loss of the CFRP laminates decreased 7% when coated by a thin layer of PBI. However, the study of mass loss and damage area on a witness plate showed CFRP case to have better shielding efficiency than PBI coated CFRP laminate case. Therefore, it is recommended that PBI coating on the front bumper is not so effective in improving the overall hypervelocity impact resistance of the space structure.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.111-116
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• 2013

Because LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellite has very limited contact time between satellite and ground station, all telemetry data generated on satellite are stored in a mass memory and transmitted to the ground during the contact time. There are two downlink modes, real-time mode and playback mode. Only real-time data frames are transmitted to the ground in real-time mode, real-time and playback data frames stored into mass memory are transmitted to the ground in playback mode. In accordance with the data transmission rate, there are two downlink rates, low downlink rate and high downlink rate. This paper briefly introduces downlink interfaces and flight software of a LEO satellite developed in KARI. And it presents the telemetry storage method, real-time and playback downlink management method, and downlink channel and rate control method.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.113-119
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• 2003

During the mission operation time, it is very important to estimate the spacecraft propellant remaining as accurately as possible. This is because the quantity of propellant is related directly to how long the satellite can be operated ín orbit. There are two different methods for spacecraft propellant gauging; the PVT method and the book-keeping method. This paper describes the characteristics and applications of these methods using the flight operation data of KOMPSAT-1. Additionally, propellant consumption rates in delta-V maneuvering and each attitude control submode are analyzed according to spacecraft operation modes. The earth search submode shows the highest propellant consumption rate.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.261-266
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• 2005

According to development of satellite geodesy, gravity potential models which have high accuracy and resolution were released. Using the EIGEN-CG01C model based on low orbit satellite data such as CHAMP and GRACE and the EGM96 model, geoid and gravity anomaly were calculated and compared. The study area is located at $123^{\circ}{\sim}132^{\circ}$ E, $33^{\circ}{\sim}43^{\circ}$ including Korea. Comparing two models, very high correlation more than 0.90 in geoid and gravity anomaly was observed, but in amplitude analysis the EIGEN-CG01C model have higher amplitude in high frequency area. Gravity anomaly calculated with both models shows a little difference in North Korea and some coast area of the Yellow sea. Through power spectrum analysis, residual anomaly that can be used in large scale structure or underground resources survey was calculated.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.149-162
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• 1996

The results of space radiation experiments carried out on board the first two Korean technology demonstration microsatellites are presented in this paper. The first satellite, KITSAT-1, launched in August 1992, carries a radiation monitoring payload called cosmic ray experiment(CRE) for characterizing the low-earth orbit(LEO) radiation environment. The CRE consists of two sub-systems: the cosmic particle experiment (CPE) and the total dose experiment(TDE). In addition, single event upset(SEU)rates of the program memory and the RAM disk are also monitored. The second satellite, KITSAT-2, launched in September 1993, carries a newly developed 32-bit on-board computer(OBC), KASCOM(KAIST satellite computer in addition to OBC186. SEUs ocurred in the KASCOM, as well as in the program memory and RAM disk memory, have been monitored since the beginning of the satellite operation. These two satellites, which are very similar in structures but different in orbits, provide a unique opportunity to study the effects of the radiation environment characterized by the orbit.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1001-1007
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• 2013

In the case of multi-mission LEO(Low Earth Orbit) operations, depending on the orbit of each satellite, one ground site is supposed to be communicated with more than two satellites at the same time. On top of that, image data processing system is generally mission-specific and 1:1 backup configuration. For the reason, if ground site has smaller number of antenna than that of satellite, interface with image data processing system would be very complicated. In this paper, considering that two LEO satellites can be operating and image data recording unit in redundancy can be easily plug-in, the implementation of matrix receiving structure is described. This matrix receiving structure has been validated from KOMPSAT-2 and -3(KOrea Multi-Purpose SATellite-2 and -3) since KOMPSAT-3 was launched in May, 2012. This structure will be applied for the KOMPSAT-3A and -5 through its expandability.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.25 no.9A
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• pp.1313-1321
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• 2000

In recent years LEO(Low Earth Orbit) satellite communication systems have gained a lot of interest as high speed multimedia services by satellite are about to be provided. It is mandatory to use very efficient ECC(Error Correcting Code) to support high speed multimedia services over LEO satellite channel. Turbo codes developed by Berrou et al. in 1993 have been actively researched since it can achieve a performance close to the Shannon limit. In this paper, a LEO satellite channel model is adopted and the fading characteristics of LEO satellite channel are analyzed for the change of elevation angle in various propagation environments. The performance of turbo code is analyzed and compared to that of conventional convolutional code using the satellite channel model. In the simulation results using the Globalstar orbit constellations, performance of turbo codes shows 1.0~2.0dB coding gain compared to that of convolutional codes over all elevation angle and propagation environment ranges we have investigated. The performance difference resulting from the change of elevation angle in various propagation environments and the performance of different ECC are analyzed in detail, so that the results can be applied to choose an appropriate ECC scheme for various system environment.