• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.284-290
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• 2014

To successfully explore the moon by lunar lander, it is essential to guarantee the safe landing of lunar lander. Therefore, efficient shock absorption system of lunar lander should be designed in order to reduce landing impact force. Also, for more practical design of lunar lander, it is important to consider the effect of lunar regolith. In the line of thought, finite element model of lunar lander considering the effect of lunar regolith is developed. To reduce landing impact force, optimization of shock absorption system for lunar lander has been carried out. In optimization, sequential approximate optimization method based on meta-model is used. Through the result of optimization, it is verified that landing impact force on lunar lander can be efficiently reduced by the present optimization procedure.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.42 no.12
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• pp.1037-1044
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• 2014

In this study, we designed a drop test system considering lunar surface environment and tested landing gear of experimental lunar lander. The lunar lander would be landed at soil place for soft landing. When the lunar lander touches down, the acceleration of the lander is largely affected by mechanical characteristics of the lunar soil. Accordingly, a drop test using lunar soil is needed to verify the performance of the lunar landing gear. Because the lunar soil is not available generally, we developed a lunar simulant KAUMLS(Korea Aerospace University Mechanical Luna Simulant) based on mechanical properties of the lunar soil of NASA's LUNA PROJECT. In addition, drop tests on steel plate and dry sand are performed to evaluate impact characteristics by the surface environment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.254-257
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• 2011

Two types of thrusters(Descent Control Thruster (DCT) for reducing landing speed and Attitude Control Thruster (ACT) for attitude control) are mounted on the propulsion system of Ground test model lunar lander. In this paper, plume impingement effect and ground effect between DCT Modules are analyzed using numerical method when the impact occurred close to the ground.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.135-138
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• 2011

As a basic research for the development of Korean lunar lander, propulsion system development for ground test is in progress. Thrust for descent is 200 N class. Design target is 220 N in vacuum thrust at 100 g/s flow rate, 200 psi chamber pressure. For ground test, thrust measurement system using LM guide was developed and test was performed. The result shows 160 N thrust in atmosphere condition at 210 psi chamber pressure.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.213-220
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• 2013

Korean Lunar Explorer is planned to be launched in the 2020s according to national space development strategy. The Lunar Explorer will be developed as two unmanned light weight models: a lunar orbiter and a lunar lander. The Lunar Explorer's structure should be designed to have light weight due to constraints from launcher as well as to provide structural safety against launch load, in-orbit condition and landing condition and to serve accommodation space for mission equipment. Core technology related to structural development of lunar explorer should be developed in advance. Especially, for lunar lander, technology for developing landing gear which enables lander to land safely on lunar surface is required essentially. This paper deals with structural development of lunar lander ground test model including design, manufacturing and test.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.45 no.8
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• pp.647-661
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• 2017

This paper presents a robust method for autonomously landing on small bodies. Autonomous landing is accomplished by generating and following reference position and attitude profiles. The position and attitude tracking controllers are based on discrete sliding mode control, which explicitly treats the discrete and impulsive natures of thruster operation. Vision-based inertial navigation is used for autonomous navigation for landing. Numerical simulation is carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed method in a realistic situation with environmental uncertainties.

• Defense and Technology
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• no.11 s.297
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• pp.32-43
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• 2003

달에 착륙한 지 6시간 20분이 지난 후 암스트롱은 온 인류가 긴장하여 TV로 지켜보는 가운데 착륙선의 문을 열고 아홉 계단의 달착륙선 사다리를 천천히 그리고 조심스럽게 내려오기 시작하였다. 인간이 지구상에 그 모습을 나타낸 이후 40만km의 먼거리에 있는 달은 인간에게는 바라볼 수는 있지만 영원히 닿을 수 없는 것으로만 생각하였는데, 4일간의 비행 끝에 전인미답의 달에 도착하여 역사적인 첫 발을 내딛는 암스트롱에게는 형용할 수 없는 감회와 감격의 순간이었을 것이다. 그는 용솟음치는 흥분을 누를 수 없었는지 착륙 직후 "이것은 한 인간에게는 작은 발걸음이지만 인류에게는 커다람 도약이다"라고 부르짖었다.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.50 no.12
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• pp.867-875
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• 2022

The preliminary mission analysis of a lunar lander, which is mounted on the upper stage of a Korean space launch vehicle, is performed when landing on the moon through a trans-lunar injection maneuver after being injected into the earth's low orbit by th launcher in this paper. Both direct landing and orbital landing methods, which have each advantage and disadvantages, are applied and their transfer orbit characteristics are analyzed according to the launch date when launching in lunar October 2030. We also analyzed the launch dates which satisfying eclipse conditions, solar elevation conditions, and tracking time intervals such as the US lunar lander Surveyor-1. The obtained results show that the most appropriate launch date is the 4th day of lunar October in case of direct landing method, and the 3rd day in case of indirect landing method, since the argument of perigee of the trans-lunar injection orbit and eclipse conditions are favorable in the dates.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.375-395
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• 2021

Korea plans to send a pathfinder lunar orbiter to the Moon for the first time in August 2022. And according to the 3rd Basic Plan for Space Development Promotion, the plan is to send a lunar lander to the Moon before 2030. The selection of the lunar landing area can be varied depending on the lunar lander's mission, therefore preliminary research on the lunar landing sites is essential for a successful lunar exploration mission design. This paper analyzed the characteristics of major regions among 14 proposed regions using NASA's MoonTrek based on the data on the candidate areas for the major moon landing proposed sites by the NASA workshop in 2018. And we looked into what kind of future moon landing missions are suitable for these areas. We also looked at the importance of lunar Antarctica area through the recent lunar landing areas of Moon landing countries and Artemis plan.

• 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.