• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.213-219
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• 2017

Large satellite development programs might take decades to build, launch and operate in space environments at costs in excess of a billion dollars. However, small satellites can reduce the costs not only by using commercial software and sensors, but also by shortening the development period to two years or less. In this paper, we discuss the development status of small satellites, and propose some military applications of small satellites. First, we describe the industrial trends of small satellites in advanced countries such as the United States and Japan. Also, we describe the development status of small satellites in Korea. Military applications are largely classified into education, research, and operational purposes. Small satellites are developing rapidly in commercial markets and they will play an important role in military sector. Therefore, the military should consider small satellites as important strategic assets in future conflicts and provide means to develop them.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.620-628
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• 2010

Small satellites can be used for various space research and scientific or educational purposes due to advantages in small size, low-cost, and rapid development. Small Satellites have many advantages of application to Responsive Space. Compared to traditional larger satellites, however, Small satellites have many constraints due to limitations in size. Therefore, it is difficult to expect high performance. To approach maximum capability with minimal size, weight, and cost, standard modular platform of Small satellites is necessary. Modularity supports plug-and-play architecture. The result is Small satellites that can be combined quickly and reliably using plug-and-play mechanisms. For communication between modules, standard bus interface is needed. Controller Area Network(CAN) protocol is considered optimum data bus for modular Small satellite. CAN can be applied to data communication with high reliability. Hence, design optimization and simplification can also be expected. For ease of assembly and integration, modular design can be considered. This paper proposes development method for standardized modular Small satellites, and describes design of data interface based on CAN and a method of testing for modularity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.98-106
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• 2018

With the advancement in technology, miniaturization, integration, and weight reduction of satellite components have become possible. In this regard, existing medium and large satellites have been replaced by small satellites. As the demand for small satellites increases, the need for micro-thrusters has emerged for precise attitude and position control. A laser ablation micro-thruster, which generates thrust by using ablation jets that offer a wide range of thrusts and low-impulse thrusts, is considered as an alternative for micro-thrusters in small satellites. The objective of the present study is to introduce configurations of the laser ablation micro-thruster and its research trend.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.253-259
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• 2018

Recently, small satellite industries are rapidly changing. Demand for high performance small satellites is increasing with the expansion of Earth Observation Satellite market. A next-generation small satellites require a higher resolution image storage capacity than before. However, there is a problem that the HW configuration of the existing small satellite image storage device could not meet these requirements. The conventional data storing system uses SDRAM to store image data taken from satellites. When SDRAM is used in small satellite platform of a next generation, there is a problem that the cost of physical space is eight times higher and satellite price is two times higher than NAND Flash. Using the same satellite hardware configuration for next-generation satellites will increase the satellite volume to meet hardware requirements. Additional cost is required for structural design, environmental testing, and satellite launch due to increasing volume. Therefore, in order to construct a low-cost, high-efficiency system. This paper shows a next-generation solid state recorder unit (SSRU) using MRAM and NAND Flash instead of SDRAM. As a result of this research, next generation small satellite retain a storage size and weight and improves the data storage space by 15 times and the storage speed by 4.5 times compare to conventional design. Also reduced energy consumption by 96% compared to SDRAM based storage devices.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.12-26
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• 2024

Attitude control of a satellite is very important to ensure proper for mission performance. Satellites launched in the past had simple missions. However, recently, with the advancement of technology, the tasks to be performed have become more complex. One example relies on a new technology that allows satellites quickly alter their attitude while orbiting in space. Currently, one of the most widely used technologies for satellite attitude control is the reaction wheel. However, the amount of torque generated by reaction wheels is too low to facilitate quick maneuvers by the satellite. One way to overcome this is to implement posture control logic using a control moment gyroscope (CMG). Various types of CMGs have been applied to space systems, and CMGs are currently mounted on large-scale satellites. However, although technological advancements have continued, the market for CMGs applicable to, small satellites remains in its early stages. An ultra-small CMG was developed for use with small satellites weighing less than 200 kg. The ultra-small CMG measured its target performance outcomes using a precision torque-measuring device. The target performance of the CMG, at 800 mNm, was set through an analysis. The final torque of the CMG produced through the design after the analysis was 821mNm, meaning that a target tolerance level of 10% was achieved.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.753-756
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• 2017

With the advancement of technology, miniaturization, integration, and weight reduction have become possible, and the existing medium and large satellites have been replaced by small satellites, and the need for a micro thruster has emerged. Laser ablation micro-thruster is a new type thruster using laser ablation. It is emerging as a new candidate in micro-thrusters with wide thrust range and low single impulse thrust. The objective of present study is to introduces the structure, propellant, and research trends of the laser ablation micro-thruster.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.136-140
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• 2011

Satellites industry has been developing with the commercial and military needs. Because power system of satellites is very important to survival operation and hard to test, increasing reliability is very critical. Especially LEO small satellites are very sensitive to power system, effective stabilization control is important. Because of various need of load condition, converter design are complicated. Therefore this paper introduced general modeling of LEO small satellite converter system and analyzed stabilization control design. The performance prediction of LEO small satellites power system is typically critical. Because of verity controller and rectification value, it is hard to computation and test implementation. So, this approach has merit that will reduce cost and make more reliable system. Furthermore, it can be constraint of converter specification and controller design. This paper will examine generation a modeling of LEO small satellites power converting system, and a possible guide line to design reliable controller which optimizing power converters of LEO small satellite.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.100-107
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• 2001

Miro propulsion device is a literally very small propulsion system The reason why such a small propulsion system is required is that micro satellites are considered as substitutions for conventional satellites to reduce cost; the fabrication of micro satellites enables us to produce mass production Microrockets have relatively high values of thrust/weight ratio due to the cube law; weight is proportional to volume and thrust is proportional to area. Accordingly, downsizing makes the ratio of thrust/weight ratio high However, conventionally ignorable facts are not negligible any more in small scale systems. for chemical micro rockets, downsizing causes lots of heat loss as surface to volume ratio increases, which results in the destruction of radical ions. For thrusters using plasma, the generation of strong magnetic field for plasma is very difficult. Also, in the aspect of flow dynamics, the effects of drag and viscosity are important parameters in low Re flows. When these problems are solved, micro propulsion systems can be commercialized and result in spin-off effects in many fields.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.490-495
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• 2009

A small Hall-effect thruster with a thrust range near 10 mN and a specific impulse of about 1500 s has been designed to control or maintain the orbits of small satellites. The thruster system consists of a hall-effect thruster head, a power processing unit and a Xenon (Xe) gas feed system. The total mass, the consumed electric power and the efficiency of the thruster are approximately 10 kg, 300W and 30%, respectively. Analyses results that support the selection of the thruster for small satellites are provided along with a brief description of the thruster system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.393-398
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• 2008

This paper suggests a GPS/INS navigation computer architecture that can be applied to small satellites. In order to implement a GPS/INS navigation system on a small satellite, the extreme environment in space such as radiation, micro-gravity, vacuum, etc. must be considered. In addition, a real-time processing ability is required for the GPS/INS navigation system since the formation flying of multiple small satellites is the ultimate goal. The developed navigation electronics utilizes a PowerPC-type MPC860T that has space environment heritage, and a pair of Atmega128s that has been implemented in KAUSAT-2 and has completed the space environment verification tests. The navigation algorithm is designed to work in VxWorks environment, ported in MPC860T.