• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2020

Upper stage of launch vehicle mainly injects a lunar explorer from low earth orbit to the moon at a distance of 380,000 km. In foreign lunar explorer, the upper stage is separated from the explorer after the explorer is injected into the earth-moon transfer trajectory, and the lunar explorer then uses on-board propellant to carry out mid-course correction maneuvers and lunar orbit insertion maneuvers. This study describes a newly presented small liquid upper stage. Using a small liquid upper stage with a wet mass of 2.9 tonnes, the lunar explorer not only can be injected earth-moon transfer trajectory but also can be performed lunar orbit insertion. This study provides acceptable mass range of the lunar explorer and the scope of acceptable mission range also describes based on the launch from Naro Space Center.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.91-98
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• 2008

Since the 1st space race between the United States and Soviet Union during the 1960s, we are competing 2nd space race to occupy the Lunar territory. Since the United States announced to construct the Lunar Base by the end of 2020, ED, Japan, and China launched Lunar explorers successfully. Even India is planning to launch a Lunar explorer in 2008. Korean government also announced that the Korea will launch first Lunar explorer in 2020. In this research Lunar mission trajectory design which will be fundamental data for Lunar mission with variable low thrust and Lunar mission trajectory which has a similar mission specification to SMART-1 are presented.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.213-220
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• 2013

Korean Lunar Explorer is planned to be launched in the 2020s according to national space development strategy. The Lunar Explorer will be developed as two unmanned light weight models: a lunar orbiter and a lunar lander. The Lunar Explorer's structure should be designed to have light weight due to constraints from launcher as well as to provide structural safety against launch load, in-orbit condition and landing condition and to serve accommodation space for mission equipment. Core technology related to structural development of lunar explorer should be developed in advance. Especially, for lunar lander, technology for developing landing gear which enables lander to land safely on lunar surface is required essentially. This paper deals with structural development of lunar lander ground test model including design, manufacturing and test.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.366-372
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• 2013

Korean lunar explorer will be launched by korean launcher KSLV-2 in the 2020s in accordance with national space development strategy. Korean lunar explorer is composed of two unmanned orbiter and lander and should be developed as small size and light weight within 550kg of launch mass due to launcher's loading capability. A structure of lunar explorer is required to have sufficient stiffness and strength under launch and operational environment as well as to accommodate mission equipment. This paper describes the result of a preliminary study on structural model design for korean lunar explorer.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.240-252
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• 2016

In this paper, an on-board orbit propagator and compressing trajectory method based on B-spline for a lunar explorer are proposed. An explorer should recognize its own orbit for a successful mission operation. Generally, orbit determination is periodically performed at the ground station, and the computed orbit information is subsequently uploaded to the explorer, which would generate a heavy workload for the ground station and the explorer. A high-performance computer at the ground station is employed to determine the orbit required for the explorer in the parking orbit of Earth. The method not only reduces the workload of the ground station and the explorer, but also increases the orbital prediction accuracy. Then, the data was compressed into coefficients within a given tolerance using B-spline. The compressed data is then transmitted to the explorer efficiently. The data compression is maximized using the proposed methods. The methods are compared with a fifth order polynomial regression method. The results show that the proposed method has the potential for expansion to various deep space probes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.407-412
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• 2008

"KAGUYA"(SELENE) is a Japanese Lunar Explorer launched by H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center on 14 September 2007. The dual-mode bipropellant propulsion subsystem of KAGUYA includes two fuel tanks, an oxidizer tank, propellant and pressurant control components, twelve monopropellant 20N thrusters, eight monopropellant 1N thrusters, and a bipropellant 500N Orbit Maneuver Engine(OME). Once the KAGUYA separated from the rocket, it circled the Earth twice and traveled to the Moon, where it entered lunar orbit. All maneuvers were performed through multiple 500N OME/20N thruster firings. This paper describes the in-space performance of KAGUYA Lunar Explorer bipropellant propulsion subsystem.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.377-382
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• 2010

In lunar explorer development program, computer simulator is necessary to provide virtual environments that vehicle confronts in lunar transfer, orbit, and landing missions, and to analyze dynamic behavior of the spacecraft under these environments. Objective of simulation differs depending on its application in spacecraft development cycle. Scope of use cases considered in this paper includes simulation of software based, processor and/or hardware in the loop, and support of ground-based flight test of developed vehicle. These use cases represent early phase in development cycle but reusability of modeling results in the next design phase is considered in defining requirements. A simulator architecture in which simulator platform is located in the middle and modules for modeling, analyzing, and three dimensional visualizing are connected to that platform is suggested. Baseline concepts and requirements for simulator development are described. Result of trade study for selecting simulation platform and approaches of defining other simulator components are summarized. Finally, characters of lunar elevation map data which is necessary for lunar terrain generation is described.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.100.1-100.1
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• 2012

Lunar limb profiles are needed for analyses of lunar occultations and solar eclipses. The lunar limb profile data by C.B. Watts (1963) have been used for such analyses, but it has been found that there are many kinds of errors in the data by Watts, which seriously affected the results obtained from the analyses of the observations. Recently very precise lunar topographic data were obtained by the Japanese lunar explorer Kaguya and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. I obtained lunar limb profiles for any lunar librations from them. I will show how well the lunar limb profiles fit to observed ones from lunar grazing occultations. By combining the accurate lunar limb profiles with observations of lunar occultations we can detect errors in the Hipparcos stellar reference frame. By analyzing Baily's beads timing observations of past total and annular solar eclipses using the accurate lunar limb profiles we will be able to detect solar diameter variations.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.357-367
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• 2008

Preparing for future Korean Lunar missions, preliminary Lunar mission design software is developed using a impulsive thrusting method. Developed software is capable of design and analysis every required mission phases to design Lunar mission, including the Earth departure, Lunar transfer, Lunar arrival and mission operation phases. Also, assuming that KSLV-II is selected as a launch vehicle, future Korean Lunar explorer's mass budget is estimated based on driven optimal trajectory characteristics. Tracking analysis is also performed using Deep Space Network including angle geometry analysis between Earth - Moon - Lunar explorer - Sun which are very important for communication, solar panel pointing strategy and eclipse analysis when Lunar missions are under designing phase.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.39A no.4
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• pp.212-214
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• 2014

In this paper, we present the scenario designs of the possibility of space communications for Korean Lunar Explorer and the analysis of its performance, depending upon the explorer's position within the moon's orbit after being launched from earth. As per each scenario, we would like to propose the analysis of the possible communication times and total transmission throughput data per day in two cases: one for using DSN and another for using only Korean's ground station.