• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.35.4-35.4
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• 2021

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is NASA's first planetary defense test mission, designed to test the kinetic deflector technique by crashing into an asteroid and changing its orbit. DART's launch window opens in November, 2021, with arrival at its target less than a year later in late September or early October 2022. The target of the DART spacecraft is the moonlet Dimorphos, a 150-m moonlet orbiting the 780-m asteroid Dimorphos. By changing the orbit of Dimorphos around Didymos, the results can be detected much more easily than changing the orbit of an asteroid around the Sun. I will discuss what we know about Didymos and Dimorphos, the plans for the DART mission, the expected results, and how DART is important for planetary defense in general.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.119-131
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• 2018

In spite of a short history of only 30 years in space development, Korea has achieved outstanding space development capabilities, and became the $11^{th}$ member of the "Space Club" in 2013 by launching its own satellites with its own launch vehicle from a local space center. With the successful development and operation of more than 10 earth-orbiting satellites since 1999, Korea is now rapidly expanding its own aspirations to outer space exploration. Unlike earth-orbiting missions, planetary missions are more demanding of well-rounded technological capabilities, specifically trajectory design, analysis, and navigation. Because of the importance of relevant technologies, the Korean astronautical society devoted significant efforts to secure these basic technologies from the early 2000s. This paper revisits the numerous efforts conducted to date, specifically regarding flight dynamics and navigation technology, to prepare for future upcoming planetary missions in Korea. However, sustained efforts are still required to realize such challenging planetary missions, and efforts to date will significantly advance the relevant Korean technological capabilities.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.413-422
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• 2012

In recent years, a number of missions have been planned and conducted worldwide on the planets such as Mars, which involves the unmanned robotic exploration with the use of rover. The rover is an important system for unmanned planetary exploration, performing the locomotion and sample collection and analysis at the exploration target of the planetary surface designated by the operator. This study investigates the development of mobility system for the rover ground model necessary to the planetary surface exploration for the benefit of future planetary exploration mission in Korea. First, the requirements for the rover mobility system are summarized and a new mechanism is proposed for a stable performance on rough terrain which consists of the passive suspension system with 8 wheeled double 4-bar linkage (DFBL), followed by the performance evaluation for the mechanism of the mobility system based on the shape design and simulation. The proposed mobility system DFBL was compared with the Rocker-Bogie suspension system of US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration and 8 wheeled mobility system CRAB8 developed in Switzerland, using the simulation to demonstrate the superiority with respect to the stability of locomotion. On the basis of the simulation results, a general system configuration was proposed and designed for the rover manufacture.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.394-396
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• 2007

Radio occultation (RO) technique has been used in planetary science since 1960s. When signal goes through atmosphere, it is refracted due to the gradient of atmospheric refractivity. In 1995, the first low earth orbit (LEO) satellite, MicroLab-1, was launched to conduct RO mission. It receives the signal from global positioning system (GPS) satellites. After MicroLab-1, other RO missions, such as CHAMP, SAC-C, and GRACE, are executed in several years later. In 2006, Taiwan launched six LEO satellites for RO mission. The mission name is Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC). Under some abnormal situations, multipath and strong fluctuation in phase and amplitude of the signal appear in moist troposphere. Therefore, open loop (OL) technique has been applied to replace traditional phase lock loop (PLL) technique. In this paper, we will summarize the retrieval processing procedure and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of OL technique.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.245-254
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• 2010

Technology of surface investigation using X-ray is one of widely used technology nowadays. This technique has been numerously used for planetary surface investigations for both orbital and rover scientific instruments. Korea has a plan to send an orbiter and lander to the Moon by the early 2020s. Therefore, the time has come for Korean researchers to develop major scientific instruments and start to do research on basic research for the Moon. Because of this situation, we firstly investigate X-ray technology, which is essential as one of core techniques of planetary remote sensing from the orbit and ground. This paper presents the current status of planetary exploration using X-ray techniques and new development of worldwide X-ray technology which could be adapted for prospective planetary missions.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.11-20
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• 2022

Planetary geotechnical investigation in charge of drilling and soil sampling is of a great importance in providing extraterrestrial geotechnical information. Extraterrestrial subsurface investigation, which includes drilling, soil sampling, and sample transportation, will be loaded in a lander or a rover. Scientists from all over the world are interested in the design and development of a drilling system with various functions due to potential applications in planetary surface exploration mission. However, it is difficult to build a fully functional drilling system in extreme environment conditions. This paper presents engineering considerations for the design and development of soil sampling including drilling and performance verification in extreme environment conditions in detail.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.47-47
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• 2003

Analytical formulae are presented to approximate the evolution of the semi major axis, the maneuver time, and the final mass fraction for low thrust orbital transfers with circular initial orbit, circular target orbit, and constant thrust directed either always along or always opposite the velocity vector. For comparison, the associated results for high-thrust transfers, i.e. the two-impulse Hohmann transfer, are summarized. All results are implemented in a computer code designed to analyze planar planetary and interplanetary space missions. This implementation yields fast and reasonably accurate approximations to trajectory performance boundaries. Consequently, the approach can provide trajectory analysis for each spacecraft configuration during the conceptual space mission design phase. As an example, a mission from Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) to Jupiter's moon Europa is analyzed.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.331-335
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• 2017

We present project updates of the next-generation infrared space mission SPICA (Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics) as of November 2015. SPICA is optimized for mid- and far-infrared astronomy with unprecedented sensitivity, which will be achieved with a cryogenically cooled (below 8 K), large (2.5 m) telescope. SPICA is expected to address a number of key questions in various fields of astrophysics, ranging from studies of the star-formation history in the universe to the formation and evolution of planetary systems. The international collaboration framework of SPICA has been revisited. SPICA under the new framework passed the Mission Definition Review by JAXA in 2015. A proposal under the new framework to ESA is being prepared. The target launch year in the new framework is 2027/28.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.43.4-44
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• 2021

99942 Apophis is an Sq-type Aten group Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) with an estimated size of 370 m. It will approach the Earth to come within the geostationary orbit during the upcoming encounter on April 13, 2029 to offer a unique chance to study its 1) global properties, 2) surface arrangements, and 3) their detectable changes expected to happen, in sub-meter scale. What measurable scientific goals for the asteroid in this "once a millennium" event could transform our knowledge of planetary science and defense? The Apophis rendezvous mission aims to understand the characteristics of the small solar system body's nature. It also prepares for potential threats from natural objects by measuring in-situ surface, shape, rotation, and orbit changes expected to occur when the target asteroid passes close to the Earth in 2029. We will present an overview of the mission scheduled to be launched from late 2026 to early 2027 and introduce scientific objectives.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.57.3-57.3
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• 2021

99942 Apophis is an Sq-type Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) with an estimated diameter of 370 m. It will approach the Earth down to 31,000 km from the surface during the encounter on April 13, 2029 UT, which is closer than geostationary satellites. This once-in-a-20,000 year opportunity would further expand our knowledge on the physical and dynamical processes which are expected to occur due to the gravitational tidal forces when an asteroid encounter with a planet. It will also provide an opportunity to promote great knowledge of the science of planetary defense. The science goal of the Apophis mission is to global-map the asteroid before and after the Earth's approach. In this talk, we will present scientific objectives, and briefly introduce instruments and operation scenarios of the mission.