• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.669-676
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• 2018

As the Moon's scientific, technological, and economic value has increased, major space agencies around the world are leading lunar exploration projects by establishing a road map to develop lunar resources and to construct a lunar base. In addition, as the lunar base construction requires huge amounts of resources from the Earth, lunar in-situ construction technology is being developed to produce construction materials from local lunar resources. On the other hand, the characteristics of lunar topography and resources vary spatially due to the crustal and volcanic activities inside the Moon as well as the solar wind and meteorites from outside the Moon. Therefore, in this paper, the geospatial analysis of lunar resource distribution was conducted to suggest regional consideration factors to apply the lunar in situ construction technologies. In addition, the lunar topographic condition to select construction sites was suggested to ensure the safe landing of a lunar lander and the easy maneuvering of a rover. The lunar topographic and resource information mainly from lunar orbiters were limited to the lunar surface with a low spatial resolution. Rover-based lunar exploration in the near future is expected to provide valuable information to develop lunar in situ construction technology and select candidate sites for lunar base construction.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.199-215
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• 2023

The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), the first South Korea lunar exploration probe, successfully arrived at the Moon on December, 2022 (UTC), following a 4.5-month ballistic lunar transfer (BLT) trajectory. Since the launch (4 August, 2022), the KPLO magnetometer (KMAG) has carried out various observations during the trans-lunar cruise phase and a 100 km altitude lunar polar orbit. KMAG consists of three fluxgate magnetometers capable of measuring magnetic fields within a ± 1,000 nT range with a resolution of 0.2 nT. The sampling rate is 10 Hz. During the originally planned lifetime of one year, KMAG has been operating successfully while performing observations of lunar crustal magnetic fields, magnetic fields induced in the lunar interior, and various solar wind events. The calibration and offset processes were performed during the TLC phase. In addition, reliabilities of the KMAG lunar magnetic field observations have been verified by comparing them with the surface vector mapping (SVM) data. If the KPLO's mission orbit during the extended mission phase is close enough to the lunar surface, KMAG will contribute to updating the lunar surface magnetic field map and will provide insights into the lunar interior structure and lunar space environment.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.108-119
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• 2014

In this paper, through the example of international lunar exploration mission the equipment was to investigate, and the amount of data transferred per day were identified. Data storage and the data transfer rate (8.4Mbps less) for the satisfaction of the value within the range of available S and X bands was confirmed by using the communication link budget. The result is to define the range of the sensor information can be obtained, as well as from the values of the parameters calculated for the transmission communication systems will be able to define the specifications.

• Current Industrial and Technological Trends in Aerospace
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.56-67
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• 2009

From 1990s, the lunar exploration programs, suspended over 20 years after the project Apollo's first successful human landing on the Moon in 1969, have been restarted according to a revived interest in Moon. In recent, several nations progress their own lunar exploration program successfully. In this report, to investigate the technical trends of the onboard propulsion system for the lunar orbiter, technical features related to the performance of the propulsion system of the lunar orbiters developed since 1990 are surveyed. In the future, it is expected that this technical report can provide a fundamental guideline for selecting a proper type of the onboard propulsion system for the domestic lunar orbiter.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.69-77
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• 2012

After lunar explorations were restarted in 1990s, the world space advanced countries have been competing actively to preoccupy the Moon from the 2000s. Korea has been also conducting precedent study on lunar exploration to carry out that by ourselves in 2020. This study analyzed delta-V of various Earth-Moon transfer trajectories for minimization of fuel consumption. Through the simulation, the best Earth-Moon transfer trajectory for Korean lunar mission is suggested and it will be used as useful materials of Korean lunar mission.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.44 no.8
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• pp.741-757
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• 2016

Over 60 years has passed since mankinds started space exploration beyond the Earth with lunar explorer Luna 1 launched by Soviet Union. Unprecedently remarkable outcomes have been obtained by sending unmanned spacecrafts to most planets in the solar system and having the lander landed on the approaching comet toward the Earth even though any evidence of life presence has not been discovered yet. Only moon is an natural object beyond the earth on which human beings landed. Many countries are planning to send humans to the moon or mars to build colonies and to survive with substantiality. Korean lunar exploration program has officially started as of 2016 after its plan including lunar exploration has been specified in the series of National Space Promotion Plan since Korea initiated space development in early 1990s. In this paper, the plan for Korean space exploration is summarized with reviewing overseas space exploration program status and trends.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.247-264
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• 2014

In this paper, a brief but essential development strategy for the lunar orbit determination system is discussed to prepare for the future Korea's lunar missions. Prior to the discussion of this preliminary development strategy, technical models of foreign agencies for the lunar orbit determination system, tracking networks to measure the orbit, and collaborative efforts to verify system performance are reviewed in detail with a short summary of their lunar mission history. Covered foreign agencies are European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Indian Space Research Organization and China National Space Administration. Based on the lessons from their experiences, the preliminary development strategy for Korea's future lunar orbit determination system is discussed with regard to the core technical issues of dynamic modeling, numerical integration, measurement modeling, estimation method, measurement system as well as appropriate data formatting for the interoperability among foreign agencies. Although only the preliminary development strategy has been discussed through this work, the proposed strategy will aid the Korean astronautical society while on the development phase of the future Korea's own lunar orbit determination system. Also, it is expected that further detailed system requirements or technical development strategies could be designed or established based on the current discussions.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.373-384
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• 2023

Initiated as Korea's inaugural space exploration endeavor, the lunar exploration development project has resulted not only the Danuri lunar orbiter but also payloads designed to achieve mission objectives and the associated Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) Deep-space Ground System for the operation and control of the Danuri. Scientific data gathered by four scientific payloads, developed by domestic institutions and installed on board the Danuri, will be publicly available starting January 2024. To facilitate this, the first-ever Korean space exploration scientific data management and public release system, KARI Planetary Data System (KPDS), has been developed. This paper provides details on the configuration and functions of the established KPDS website.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.103.2-103.2
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• 2011

We measure the degree of polarization of the lunar regolith to map the distributions of the age and the particle size. We use a 12cm refracting telescope with a 2k-square pixel color CCD (R band) and a polarization filter. The angular resolution obtained is 3.02 km/pixel. Our goal is to obtain a map of the lunar particle size distribution on the lunar regolith and then that of the age distribution. Polarization of the light scattered by lunar surface contains information on their mean particle size. The mean particle size of the lunar surface has been decreased by continued micro-meteoroid impact over a long period. One can estimate the age of the lunar surface if the mean particle size is known. Particle sizes can be measured through observations of polarization because the mean particle size is related to the maximum polarization and albedo. The age and the particle size of the lunar regolith can give vital information for the future lunar exploration.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.123-129
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• 2023

This paper presents an analysis of the trans-lunar trajectory insertion performance of the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), the first lunar exploration spacecraft of the Republic of Korea. The successful launch conducted on August 4, 2022 (UTC), utilized the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The trans-lunar trajectory insertion performance plays a crucial role in ensuring the overall mission success by directly influencing the spacecraft's onboard fuel consumption. Following separation from the launch vehicle (LV), a comprehensive analysis of the trajectory insertion performance was performed by the KPLO flight dynamics (FD) team. Both orbit parameter message (OPM) and orbit determination (OD) solutions were employed using deep space network (DSN) tracking measurements. As a result, the KPLO was accurately inserted into the ballistic lunar transfer (BLT) trajectory, satisfying all separation requirements at the target interface point (TIP), including launch injection energy per unit mass (C3), right ascension of the injection orbit apoapsis vector (RAV), and declination of the injection orbit apoapsis vector (DAV). The precise BLT trajectory insertion facilitated the smoother operation of the KPLO's remainder mission phase and enabled the utilization of reserved fuel, consequently significantly enhancing the possibilities of an extended mission.