• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.61.3-61.3
• /
• 2019

We report the status of KMTNet (Korea Microlensing Telescope Network) microlensing. From KMTNet event-finder, we are annually detecting over 2500 microlensing events. In 2018, we have carried out a real-time alert for only the Northern bulge fields. It was very helpful to select Spitzer targets. Thanks to the real-time alert, KMT-only events for which OGLE and MOA could not detect have been largely increased. The KMTNet event-finder and alert-finder algorithms are being upgraded every year. From these, we found 18 exoplanets and various interesting events, such as an exomoon-candidate, a free-floating candidate, and brown dwarfs, which are very difficult to be detected by other techniques including radial velocity and transit. In 2019, the KMTNet alert will be available in real-time for all bulge fields. As before, we will continue to collaborate with Spitzer team to measure the microlens parallaxes, which are required for estimating physical parameters of the lens. Thus, the KMTNet alert will be helpful to select Spitzer targets again. Also we plan to do follow-up observations for high-magnification events to study the planet multiplicity function. The KMTNet alert will play an important role to do follow-up observations for high-magnification events. Also, we will search for free-floating planets with short timescale (< 3 days) to study the planet frequency in our Galaxy.

• Food Science and Industry
• /
• v.49 no.4
• /
• pp.40-63
• /
• 2016

John Glenn, America's first man to eat anything in the near-weightless environment of Earth orbit, found the task of eating fairly easy. With improved packaging came improved food quality and menus. By the time of the Apollo Program, the quality and variety of food increased even further. Apollo astronauts were the first to have hot water, which made rehydrating foods easier and improved the food's taste. Thermostabilized pouches were also introduced on Apollo. The task of eating in space got a big boost in Skylab. It also had a food freezer and refrigerator a convenience offered by no other vehicle before or since. Two different food systems will be used for future long-duration missions to other planets, one for traveling to and from the distant body and one for use on the surface of the moon or Mars. The transit food system will be similar to the space station food system with the exception that products with three-to five-year shelf lives will be needed. Thus, this part of the trip will be similar to what occurs aboard space missions now. The surface food system, be it lunar or planetary, will be quite different. It will be similar to a vegetarian diet that someone could cook on Earth. Once crew members arrive on the surface and establish living quarters, they can start growing crops. Once the crops are processed into edible ingredients, cooking will be done in the spacecraft's galley to make the food items. Disposal of used food packaging will be an issue since there will be no Progress vehicles to send off and incinerate into the Earth's atmosphere. Packaging materials will be used that have less mass but sufficient barrier properties for oxygen and water to maintain shelf life as those now in use.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.241-255
• /
• 2021

Space observation data includes research data such as stars, galaxies, Sun, space plasma, planets, and minor bodies observed through space missions, including processing and utilizing the observation data. Astronomy and space science observation systems are getting larger, and space mission opportunities and data size are increasing. Accordingly, the need for systematic and efficient management of space observation data is growing. Therefore, in Korea, a strategy and policy for space observation data should be established. As a stage of preparation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s data strategy, which developed from extensive understanding and long-term experience for space observation data, was analyzed. Based on the analysis results, we propose a strategic direction and 10 recommendations for Korean space observation data strategies that will be the basis for establishing space observation data policies in the future.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.62.1-62.1
• /
• 2021

Interstellar objects originate from other stellar systems. Thus, they contain information about the stellar systems that cannot be directly explored; the information includes the formation and evolution of the stellar systems and the possibility of life. The examples observed so far are 1l/Oumuamua in 2017 and 2l/Borisov in 2019. In this talk, we present the possibility of detecting interstellar objects using the Heliospheric Imagers designed for space weather research and forecasting by observing solar wind in interplanetary space between the Sun and Earth. Because interstellar objects are unpredictable events, the detection requires observations with wide coverage in spatial and long duration in temporal. The near-real time data availability is essential for follow-up observations to study their detailed properties and future rendezvous missions. Heliospheric Imagers provide day-side observations, inaccessible by traditional astronomical observations. This will dramatically increase the temporal and spatial coverage of observations and also the probability of detecting interstellar objects visiting our solar system, together with traditional astronomical observations. We demonstrate that this is the case. We have used data taken from Solar TErrestrial RElation Observatory (STEREO)/Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) HI-1. HI-1 is off-pointed from the Sun direction by 14 degrees with 20 degrees of the field of view. Using images observed from 2007 to 2019, we have found a total of 223 small objects other than stars, galaxies, or planets, indicative of the potential capability to detect interstellar objects. The same method can be applied to the currently operating missions such as the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter and also future L5 and L4 missions. Since the data can be analyzed in near-real time due to the space weather purposes, more detailed properties can be analyzed by follow-up observations in ground and space, and also future rendezvous missions. We discuss future possible rendezvous missions at the end of this talk.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.37.3-38
• /
• 2021

One of the key questions on star formation is how the organic molecules are synthesized and delivered to the planets and comets since they are the building blocks of prebiotic molecules such as amino acid, which is thought to contribute to bringing life on Earth. Recent astrochemical models and experiments have explained that complex organic molecules (COMs; molecules composed of six or more atoms) are produced on the dust grain mantles in cold and dense gas in prestellar cores. However, the chemical networks and the roles of physical conditions on chemistry are not still understood well. To address this question, hot (> 100 K) cores in high mass young stellar objects (M > 8 Msun) are great laboratories due to their strong emissions and larger samples than those of low-mass counterparts. In addition, CH₃OH masers, which have been mostly found in high mass star forming regions, can provide constraints due to their very unique emerging mechanisms. We investigate twelve high mass star forming regions in ALMA band 6 observation. They are associated with 44/95 GHz Class I and 6.7 GHz Class II CH3OH masers, implying that the active accretion processes are ongoing. For these previously unresolved regions, 66 continuum peaks are detected. Among them, we found 28 cores emitting COMs and specified 10 cores associated with 6.7 GHz Class II CH3OH masers. The chemical diversity of COMs is found in cores in terms of richness and complexity; we identified up to 19 COMs including oxygen- and nitrogen-bearing molecules and their isotopologues in a core. Oxygen-bearing molecules appear to be abundant and more complex than nitrogen-bearing species. On the other hand, the COMs detection rate steeply grows with the gas column density, which can be attributed to the effective COMs formation in dense cores.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.59.2-59.2
• /
• 2020

Disks around protostars are the birthplace of planets. The first step toward planet formation is grain growth from ㎛-sized grains to mm/cm-sized grains in a disk, particularly in dense regions. In order to study whether grains grow and segregate at the protostellar stage, we investigate the ALMA Band 3 (3.1 mm) and 7 (0.87 mm) dust continuum observations of the protostellar disk WL 17 in ρ Ophiuchus L1688 cloud. As reported in a previous study, the Band 3 image shows substructures: a narrow ring and a large central hole. On the other hand, the Band 7 image shows different substructures: a non-axisymmetric ring and an off-center hole. The two-band observations provide a mean spectral index of 2.3, which suggests the presence of mm/cm-sized large grains. Its non-axisymmetric distribution may imply dust segregation between small and large grains. We perform radiative transfer modeling to examine the size and spatial distributions of dust grains in the WL 17 disk. The best-fit model suggests that large grains (>1 cm) exist in the disk, settling down toward the midplane, whereas small grains (~10 ㎛) well mixed with gas are distributed off-center and non-axisymmetrically in a thick layer. The low spectral index and the modeling results suggest that grains rapidly grow at the protostellar stage and that grains differently distribute depending on sizes, resulting in substructures varying with observed wavelengths. To understand the differential grain distributions and substructures, we discuss the effects of the protoplanet(s) expected inside the large hole and the possibility of gravitational instability.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2023

Space exploration is at the forefront of human scientific endeavors, and planetary exploration rovers play a critical role in studying planetary surfaces. Rover performance is especially vital for safely navigating steep terrain and delicate landscapes found on planets like Mars and the Moon. This paper offers a comprehensive overview of a landing testbed designed to simulate challenging extraterrestrial terrain and loose regolith. The paper briefly outlines lunar crater region topographical features and highlights the importance of these simulations in rover testing. It then explores previous landing testbed developments and describes the design process for a landing testbed to be installed in the dirty thermal vacuum chamber at the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology. Once realized, this proposed landing testbed will enable precise evaluations of rover mobility and exploration capabilities under lunar-like conditions, including high vacuum and extreme temperatures.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.33 no.5
• /
• pp.373-387
• /
• 2023

Scientific exploration of extraterrestrial planets has gripped human imagination since the advent of space travel. Human missions to Mars could produce insight into the essential questions of how, when and where life began on Earth. Such missions would only be feasible using local space resources materials, a concept called in situ-resource utilization (ISRU). The purpose of this paper is to provide a thorough review of the currently available Mars soil simulants and to determine those with geotechnical properties most appropriate for vehicle mobility studies. Sourcing and processing are considered since full-scale studies require bulk quantities of material on the order of tens of tons. This review identifies the simulants with the highest fidelity to Mars wind drift soils. In addition, recommendation guide for mars soil simulant development made.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.337-343
• /
• 2023

Olivine is a complete solid solution of fayalite and forsterite that is abundant in Earth and extraterrestrial materials such as rocky planets, meteorites, asteroids, and interplanetary dust. Due to the wide range of olivine compositions, diverse olivine standards are required for quantitative mineralogical analysis of olivine-bearing materials. Olivine standards were synthesized using an electric furnace and stainless steel tubes at temperatures ranging from 1000~1100 ℃. Overall, olivine was synthesized covering the full range of composition, with some synthetic impurities and unreacted material. The synthesized olivine showed a linear increase in the unit cell dimension in proportion to the molar ratio of fayalite in the starting materials, and the diffraction intensity was consistent with that of natural olivine. However, iron-rich synthetic olivine samples tend to have a higher content of impurity, suggesting that not all synthetic olivine can be used as a standard material yet, and improvements in the synthesis process, such as using high purity starting materials and control of reaction time and temperature, are required.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.56 no.2
• /
• pp.293-299
• /
• 2023

The Wide-Angle Polarimetric Camera (PolCam) is installed on the Korea's lunar orbiter, Danuri, which launched on August 5, 2022. The mission objectives of PolCam are to construct photometric maps at a wavelength of 336 nm and polarization maps at 461 and 748 nm, with a phase angle range of 0°-135° and a spatial resolution of less than 100 m. PolCam is an imager using the push-broom method and has two cameras, Cam 1 and Cam 2, with a viewing angle of 45° to the right and left of the spacecraft's direction of orbit. We conducted performance tests in a laboratory setting before installing PolCam's flight model on the spacecraft. We analyzed the CCD's dark current, flat-field frame, spot size, and light flux. The dark current was obtained during thermal / vacuum test with various temperatures and the flat-field frame data was also obtained with an integrating sphere and tungsten light bulb. We describe the calibration method and results in this study.