• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• 제31권1호
• /
• pp.83-90
• /
• 2014

The NISS onboard NEXTSat-1 is being developed by Korea astronomy and space science institute (KASI). For the study of the cosmic star formation history, the NISS performs the imaging spectroscopic observation in the near-infrared range for nearby galaxies, low background regions, star-forming regions and so on. It is designed to cover a wide field of view ($2{\times}2$ deg) and a wide wavelength range from 0.95 to $3.8{\mu}m$ by using linear variable filters. In order to reduce the thermal noise, the telescope and the infrared sensor are cooled down to 200 K and 80 K, respectively. Evading a stray light outside the field of view and making the most use of limited space, the NISS adopts the off-axis reflective optical system. The primary and the secondary mirrors, the opto-mechanical part and the mechanical structure are designed to be made of aluminum material. It reduces the degradation of optical performance due to a thermal variation. This paper presents the study on the conceptual design of the NISS.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• 제28권1호
• /
• pp.93-102
• /
• 2011

Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) launched the development project of two satellite laser ranging (SLR) systems in early 2008 after the government fund approval of the SLR systems in 2007. One mobile SLR system and one permanent SLR station will be developed with the completion of the project. The main objectives of these systems will be focused on the Space Geodetic researches. A system requirement review was held in the second half of the same year. Through the following system design review meeting and other design reviews, many unsolved technical and engineering issues would be discussed and resolved. However, the design of the mobile SLR system is a corner stone of whole project. The noticeable characteristics of Korea's first SLR system are 1) use of light weight main mirror, 2) design of compact optical assembly, 3) use of KHz laser pulse, 4) use of commercial laser generator, 5) remote operation capability, 6) automatic tracking, 7) state of art operation system, etc. In this paper, the major user requirement and pre-defined specification are presented and discussed.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• 제27권4호
• /
• pp.337-343
• /
• 2010

Optical observation system provides angle-only measurement for orbit determination of space object. Range measurement can be directly acquired using laser ranging or tone ranging system. Initial orbit determination (IOD) by using angle- only data set shows discrepancy according to the measurement time interval. To solve this problem, range measurement data should be added for IOD. In this study, two-site optical observation was used to derive the range information. We have observed nine geostationary earth orbit satellites by using two-site optical observation system. The determination result of the range shows the accuracy over 99.5% compared to the results from the satellite tool kit simulation. And we confirmed that the orbit determination by the Herrick-Gibbs method with the range information obtained from the two-site observation is more accurate than the orbit determination by Gauss method with the one-site observation. For more accurate two-site optical observation, a baseline should satisfy an optimal condition of length and more precise observation system needed.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• 제32권2호
• /
• pp.113-120
• /
• 2015

When humans explore the Moon, lunar caves will be an ideal base to provide a shelter from the hazards of radiation, meteorite impact, and extreme diurnal temperature differences. In order to ascertain the existence of caves on the Moon, it is best to visit the Moon in person. The Google Lunar X Prize(GLXP) competition started recently to attempt lunar exploration missions. Ones of those groups competing, plan to land on a pit of Lacus Mortis and determine the existence of a cave inside this pit. In this pit, there is a ramp from the entrance down to the inside of the pit, which enables a rover to approach the inner region of the pit. In this study, under the assumption of the existence of a cave in this pit, a 3D model was developed based on the optical image data. Since this model simulates the actual terrain, the rendering of the model agrees well with the image data. Furthermore, the 3D printing of this model will enable more rigorous investigations and also could be used to publicize lunar exploration missions with ease.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• 제32권4호
• /
• pp.311-315
• /
• 2015

In this study, we estimated the topside scale height of plasma density (Hm) using the Swarm constellation and ionosondes in Korea. The Hm above Korean Peninsula is generally around 50 km. Statistical distributions of the topside scale height exhibited a complex dependence upon local time and season. The results were in general agreement with those of Tulasi Ram et al. (2009), who used the same method to calculate the topside scale height in a mid-latitude region. On the contrary, our results did not fully coincide with those obtained by Liu et al. (2007), who used electron density profiles from Arecibo Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) between 1966 and 2002. The disagreement may result from the limitations in our approximation method and data coverage used for estimations, as well as the inherent dependence of Hm on Geographic LONgitude (GLON).

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• 제39권4호
• /
• pp.141-144
• /
• 2022

By providing an environment where energetic particles and micrometeorites can not penetrate, caves on Mars may serve as a human shelter in future Mars explorations. More than 1,000 cave entrance candidates have been detected; however, their physical characteristics that can be utilized in detecting more candidates have not been explored in detail. In this paper, we explore the nighttime temperature of 100 cave entrance candidates and their surrounding areas to investigate 1) the nighttime temperature tendencies relative to their surrounding areas and 2) the extent of these temperature differences. We find that 79% of the cave entrance candidates exhibit higher temperatures than the surrounding areas, and 59% show a temperature difference over 20K, suggesting that the cave entrances may generally show higher temperatures than the surrounding areas during the nighttime.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• 제36권2호
• /
• pp.75-86
• /
• 2019

UV Psc is a typical RS CVn type system undergoing dynamic chromosphere activity. We performed photometric observations of the system in 2015 and secured new BVR light curves showing well-defined photometric waves. In this paper, we analyzed the light curves using Wilson-Devinney binary code and investigated the orbital period of the system. The combination of our light curve synthesis with the spectroscopic solution developed by previous investigators yielded the absolute parameters as: $M_1=1.104{\pm}0.042M_{\odot}$, $R_1=1.165{\pm}0.025R_{\odot}$, and $L_1=1.361{\pm} 0.041L_{\odot}$ for the primary star, and $M_2=0.809{\pm}0.082M_{\odot}$, $R_2=0.858{\pm}0.018R_{\odot}$, and $L_2=0.339 {\pm}0.010L_{\odot}$ for the secondary star. The eclipse timing diagram for accurate CCD and photoelectric timings showed that the orbital period may vary either in a downward parabolic manner or a quasi-sinusoidal pattern. If the latter is adopted as a probable pattern for the period change, a more plausible account for the cyclic variation may be the light time effect caused by a circumbinary object rather than an Applegate-mechanism occurring via variable surface magnetic field strengths.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• 제27권4호
• /
• pp.309-318
• /
• 2010

We introduce a technical approach for reducing three-dimensional infrared (IR) spectroscopic data generated by integral field spectroscopy or slit-scanning observations. The first part of data reduction using IRAF presents a guideline for processing spectral images from long-slit IR spectroscopy. Multichannel image reconstruction, Image Analysis and Display (MIRIAD) is used in the later part to construct and analyze the data cubes which contain spatial and kinematic information of the objects. This technic has been applied to a sample data set of diffuse 2.1218 ${\mu}m$ $H_2$ 1-0 S(1) emission features observed by slit-scanning around Sgr A East in the Galactic center. Details of image processing for the high-dispersion infrared data are described to suggest a sequence of contamination cleaning and distortion correction. Practical solutions for handling data cubes are presented for survey observations with various configurations of slit positioning.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• 제40권2호
• /
• pp.59-66
• /
• 2023

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) officially announced a global pandemic on March 12, 2020, the aviation industry in the world has been experiencing difficulties for a long time. Meanwhile, the Ukraine war broke out in February, and from March 15, domestic airlines must operate air routes bypassing Russian airspace despite the longer flight time. Therefore, as the flight time increases, the cosmic radiation exposure dose of the crew members is also expected to increase. Here we compare the radiation exposure dose between the route doses for the eastern United States and Europe before and after the detour route usage. Through the comparison analysis, we tried to understand how cosmic radiation changes depending on the flight time and the latitude and which one contributes more. We expect that this study can be used for the policy update for the safety management of cosmic radiation for aircrews in Korea.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• 제28권3호
• /
• pp.217-223
• /
• 2011

Precise point positioning (PPP) is increasingly used in several parts such as monitoring of crustal movement and maintaining an international terrestrial reference frame using global positioning system (GPS) measurements. An accuracy of PPP data processing has been increased due to the use of the more precise satellite orbit/clock products. In this study we developed PPP algorithm that utilizes data collected by a GPS receiver. The measurement error modelling including the tropospheric error and the tidal model in data processing was considered to improve the positioning accuracy. The extended Kalman filter has been also employed to estimate the state parameters such as positioning information and float ambiguities. For the verification, we compared our results to other of International GNSS Service analysis center. As a result, the mean errors of the estimated position on the East-West, North-South and Up-Down direction for the five days were 0.9 cm, 0.32 cm, and 1.14 cm in 95% confidence level.