• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2021

The observation of stellar occultations constitutes one of the most important techniques for determining the dimensions and establishing the physical parameters of small Solar System bodies. The most substantial calculations are obtained from multiple observations of the same event, which turns the observation of stellar occultations into highly collaborative work and groups teams of observers through international networks. The above situation also requires the participation of both professional and amateur observers in these collaborative networks. With the aim of promoting the participation of professional and amateur groups in the collaborative observation of stellar occultations, we present the methodology developed by the Astronomical Observatory of the Technological University of Pereira (OAUTP) for the observations of occultations due small Solar System bodies. We expose the three fundamental phases of the process: the plan to make observations, the capture of the events, and the treatment of the data. We apply our methodology using a fixed station and a mobile station to observe stellar occultations due to MBAs (354) Eleonora (61) Danae (15112) Arlenewolfe (3915) Fukushima (61788) 2000 QP181 (425) Cornelia (257) Silesia (386) Siegena and (41) Daphne, and due to TNOs 1998BU48 and (529823) 2010 PP81. The positive detections for the objects (257) Silesia (386) Siegena and (41) Daphne allow us to derive lower limits in the diameter of the MBAs of 63.1 km, 166.2 km and 158.7 km and offsets in the astrometric position (Δαc cos��c, Δ��c) of 622.30 ± 0.83, 15.23 ± 9.88 mas, 586.06 ± 1.68, 43.03 ± 13.88 mas and -413.44 ± 9.42, 234.05 ± 19.12 mas, respectively.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.317-323
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• 2014

Odyssey, one of the NASA's Mars exploration program and SELENE (Kaguya), a Japanese lunar orbiting spacecraft have a payload of Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) for analyzing radioactive chemical elements of the atmosphere and the surface. In these days, gamma-ray spectroscopy with a High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector has been widely used for the activity measurements of natural radionuclides contained in the soil of the Earth. The energy spectra obtained by the HPGe detectors have been generally analyzed by means of the Window Analysis (WA) method. In this method, activity concentrations are determined by using the net counts of energy window around individual peaks. Meanwhile, an alternative method, the so-called Full Spectrum Analysis (FSA) method uses count numbers not only from full-absorption peaks but from the contributions of Compton scattering due to gamma-rays. Consequently, while it takes a substantial time to obtain a statistically significant result in the WA method, the FSA method requires a much shorter time to reach the same level of the statistical significance. This study shows the validation results of FSA method. We have compared the concentration of radioactivity of $^{40}K$, $^{232}Th$ and $^{238}U$ in the soil measured by the WA method and the FSA method, respectively. The gamma-ray spectrum of reference materials (RGU and RGTh, KCl) and soil samples were measured by the 120% HPGe detector with cosmic muon veto detector. According to the comparison result of activity concentrations between the FSA and the WA, we could conclude that FSA method is validated against the WA method. This study implies that the FSA method can be used in a harsh measurement environment, such as the gamma-ray measurement in the Moon, in which the level of statistical significance is usually required in a much shorter data acquisition time than the WA method.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.113-122
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• 2023

Although the Relative Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning technique provides high accuracy, it has several drawbacks. The scarcity of control points, the long baselines, and using of ultra-rabid and rabid products increased position errors. This study has designed a New MATLAB Program that helps users automatically select suitable IGS stations related to the baseline lengths and the azimuth between GNSS points and IGS stations. This study presented criteria for the length of the baselines used in Egypt and an advanced estimated accuracy before starting the project. The experimental test studies the performance of the position accuracy related to the relation between three factors: observation session, final, rabid, and ultrarabid products, and the baseline lengths. Ground control point mediates Egypt was selected as a test point. Nine surrounding IGS stations were selected as reference stations, and the coordinates of the tested point were calculated based on them. Baselines between the tested point and the IGS stations were classified regarding proposal criteria. The coordinates of the tested point were obtained in different observation sessions (0.5, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7.5 h). The results indicated that the lengths of the baseline in Egypt were classified short (less than 600 km), medium (600-1,200 km), and long (greater than 1,200 km) and required a minimum observation time of 4, 5, and 7 h to obtain accuracy 10, 19, 48 mm sequentially. The position accuracy was superior for the rapid and the final than the ultra-rapid products by 16%. A short baseline was at the best case; there was a performance in position accuracy with a 57% deduction in observation time compared with the long baseline.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.145-158
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• 2022

The dynamics of the outer zone radiation belt has received a lot of attention mainly due to the correlation between the occurrence of enhancing relativistic electron flux and spacecraft operation anomalies or even failures (e.g., Baker et al. 1994). Relativistic electron events are often observed during great storms associated with ultra low frequency (ULF) waves. For example, a large buildup of relativistic electrons was observed during the great storm of March 24, 1991 (e.g., Li et al. 1993; Hudson et al. 1995; Mann et al. 2013). However, the dominant processes which accelerate magnetospheric radiation belt electrons to MeV energies are not well understood. In this paper, we present observations of Pc5 ULF waves in the recovery phase of the Bastille day storm of July 16, 2000 and electron and proton flux simultaneously oscillating with the same frequencies as the waves. The mechanism for the observed electron and proton flux modulations is examined using ground-based and satellite observations. During this storm time, multiple packets of discrete frequency Pc5 ULF waves appeared associated with energetic particle flux oscillations. We model the drift paths of electrons and protons to determine if the particles drift through the ULF wave to understand why some particle fluxes are modulated by the ULF waves and others are not. We also analyze the flux oscillations of electrons and protons as a function of energy to determine if the particle modulations are caused by a ULF wave drift resonance or advection of a particle density gradient. We suggest that the energetic electron and proton modulations by Pc5 ULF waves provide further evidence in support of the important role that ULF waves play in outer radiation belt dyanamics during storm times.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.31-46
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• 2009

An Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) for estimation of the attitude and rate of a spacecraft using only magnetometer vector measurement is developed. The attitude dynamics used in the estimation is the nonlinear Euler's rotational equation which is augmented with the quaternion kinematics to construct a process model. The filter is designed for small satellite in low Earth orbit, so the disturbance torques include gravity-gradient torque, magnetic disturbance torque, and aerodynamic drag torque. The magnetometer measurements are simulated based on time-varying position of the spacecraft. The filter has been tested not only in the standby mode but also in the detumbling mode. Two types of actuators have been modeled and applied in the simulation. The PD controller is used for the two types of actuators (reaction wheels and thrusters) to detumble the spacecraft. The estimation error converged to within 5 deg for attitude and 0.1 deg/s for rate respectively when the two types of actuators were used. A joint state parameter estimation has been tested and the effect of the process noise covariance on the parameter estimation has been indicated. Also, Monte-Carlo simulations have been performed to test the capability of the filter to converge with the initial conditions sampled from a uniform distribution. Finally, the UKF performance has been compared to that of the EKF and it demonstrates that UKF slightly outperforms EKF. The developed algorithm can be applied to any type of small satellites that are actuated by magnetic torquers, reaction wheels or thrusters with a capability of magnetometer vector measurements for attitude and rate estimation.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.259-267
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• 2012

Polar cap potential has long been considered as an indicator for the amount of energy flowing in the magnetosphere-ionosphere system. Thus, the estimation of polar cap potential is important to understand the physical process of the magnetosphere. To estimate the polar cap potential in the Northern Hemisphere, merging electric field by Kan & Lee (1979) is adopted. Relationships between the PC index and calculated merging electric field ($E^*$) are examined during full-time and storm-time periods separately. For this purpose Dst, AL, and PC indices and solar wind data are utilized during the period from 1996-2003. From this linear relationship, polar cap potential (${\Phi}^*$) is estimated using the formula by Doyle & Burke (1983). The values are represented as $58.1{\pm}26.9$ kV for the full-time period and $123.7{\pm}84.1$ kV for a storm-time period separately. Considering that the average value of polar cap potential of Doyle & Burke (1983) is about 47 kV during moderately quiet intervals with the S3-2 measurements, these results are similar to such. The monthly averaged variation of Dst, AL, and PC indices are then compared. The Dst and AL indices show distinct characteristics with peaks during equinoctial season whereas the average PC index according to the month shows higher values in autumn than in spring. The monthly variations of the linear correlation coefficients between solar wind parameters and geomagnetic indices are also examined. The PC-AL linear correlation coefficient is highest, being 0.82 with peaks during the equinoctial season. As with the AL index, the PC index may also prove useful for predicting the intensity of an auroral substorm. Generally, the linear correlation coefficients are shown low in summer due to conductance differences and other factors. To assess the role of the PC index during the recovery phase of a storm, the relation between the cumulative PC index and the duration is examined. Although the correlation coefficient lowers with the storm size, it is clear that the average correlation coefficient is high. There is a tendency that duration of the recovery phase is longer as the PC index increases.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.237-250
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• 2021

A rover is a planetary surface exploration device designed to move across the ground on a planet or a planetary-like body. Exploration rovers are increasingly becoming a vital part of the search for scientific evidence and discoveries on a planetary satellite of the Sun, such as the Moon or Mars. Reliable behavior and predictable locomotion of a rover is important. Understanding soil behavior and its interaction with rover wheels-the terramechanics-is of great importance in rover exploration performance. Up to now, many researchers have adopted Bekker's semiempirical model to predict rover wheelsoil interaction, which is based on the assumption that soil is deformable when a pressure is applied to it. Despite this basic assumption of the model, the pressure-sinkage relation is not fully understood, and it continues to present challenges for rover designers. This article presents a new pressure-sinkage model based on dimensional analysis (DA) and results of bevameter tests. DA was applied to the test results in order to propose a new pressure-sinkage model by reducing physical quantitative parameters. As part of the work, a new bevameter was designed and built so that it could be successfully used to obtain a proper pressure-sinkage relation of Korean Lunar Soil Simulant (KLS-1). The new pressure-sinkage model was constructed by using three different sizes of flat plate diameters of the bevameter. The newly proposed model was compared successfully with other models for validation purposes.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 2011

The precise orbit determination (POD) of low earth orbiter (LEO) has complied with its required positioning accuracy by the double-differencing of observations between International GNSS Service (IGS) and LEO to eliminate the common clock error of the global positioning system (GPS) satellites and receiver. Using this method, we also have achieved the 1 m positioning accuracy of Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite (KOMPSAT)-2. However double-differencing POD has huge load of processing the global network of lots of ground stations because LEO turns around the Earth with rapid velocity. And both the centimeter accuracy and the near real time (NRT) processing have been needed in the LEO POD applications--atmospheric sounding or urgent image processing--as well as the surveying. An alternative to differential GPS for high accuracy NRT POD is precise point positioning (PPP) to use measurements from one satellite receiver only, to replace the broadcast navigation message with precise post processed values from IGS, and to have phase measurements of dual frequency GPS receiver. PPP can obtain positioning accuracy comparable to that of differential positioning. KOMPSAT-5 has a precise dual frequency GPS flight receiver (integrated GPS and occultation receiver, IGOR) to satisfy the accuracy requirements of 20 cm positioning accuracy for highly precise synthetic aperture radar image processing and to collect GPS radio occultation measurements for atmospheric sounding. In this paper we obtained about 3-5 cm positioning accuracies using the real GPS data of the Gravity Recover and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites loaded the Blackjack receiver, a predecessor of IGOR. And it is important to reduce the latency of orbit determination processing in the NRT POD. This latency is determined as the volume of GPS measurements. Thus changing the sampling intervals, we show their latency to able to reduce without the precision degradation as the assessment of their precision.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.323-333
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• 2016

In this study, the uncertainty requirements for orbit, attitude, and burn performance were estimated and analyzed for the execution of the $1^{st}$ lunar orbit insertion (LOI) maneuver of the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) mission. During the early design phase of the system, associate analysis is an essential design factor as the $1^{st}$ LOI maneuver is the largest burn that utilizes the onboard propulsion system; the success of the lunar capture is directly affected by the performance achieved. For the analysis, the spacecraft is assumed to have already approached the periselene with a hyperbolic arrival trajectory around the moon. In addition, diverse arrival conditions and mission constraints were considered, such as varying periselene approach velocity, altitude, and orbital period of the capture orbit after execution of the $1^{st}$ LOI maneuver. The current analysis assumed an impulsive LOI maneuver, and two-body equations of motion were adapted to simplify the problem for a preliminary analysis. Monte Carlo simulations were performed for the statistical analysis to analyze diverse uncertainties that might arise at the moment when the maneuver is executed. As a result, three major requirements were analyzed and estimated for the early design phase. First, the minimum requirements were estimated for the burn performance to be captured around the moon. Second, the requirements for orbit, attitude, and maneuver burn performances were simultaneously estimated and analyzed to maintain the $1^{st}$ elliptical orbit achieved around the moon within the specified orbital period. Finally, the dispersion requirements on the B-plane aiming at target points to meet the target insertion goal were analyzed and can be utilized as reference target guidelines for a mid-course correction (MCC) maneuver during the transfer. More detailed system requirements for the KPLO mission, particularly for the spacecraft bus itself and for the flight dynamics subsystem at the ground control center, are expected to be prepared and established based on the current results, including a contingency trajectory design plan.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.397-408
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• 2007

Diplexer is one of core devices needed to communicate with satellite using single ground antenna by separating uplink and downlink signal. This paper presents the design of the S-band diplexer for LEO TT&C application, especially for KOMPSAT (KOrea Multi-Purpose SATellite). To cope with requirements such as high handling power, low insertion loss, air-cavity resonator with high quality factor was considered as one of design drivers. Design was started with predicting unloaded Q and equivalent circuit from the structure of air-cavity resonator. For the convenience of adjustment, the coupling factor placed between resonators was estimated from COTSEM (Electro-Magnetic) simulator, EESOF $ADS^{TM}$, and expressed with 2-order polynomial regression. To improve the isolation between transmitting part (Tx) and receiving part (Rx), the inductive and capacitive attenuation poles were inserted between $4^{th}\;and\;6^{th}$ resonator respectively. The fabricated diplexer consists of two bandpass filters and each filter has eight resonants. From the measurement, it was shown that major requirements such as 0.5dB of insertion loss, 20dB of return loss and 100dB of isolation were fully satisfied within passband.