Saturday, September 1, 2012

Mission and Optimal Trajectory Design for the Korean Lunar Exploration Mission

The design and future of the Republic of Korea's KSLV-2, jointly engineered with Roscosmos, is uncertain. A Korean unmanned lunar orbiter in 2020, a lander in 2025 and sampler in 2030 as envisioned in this detailed student study might depend, instead, on a KSLV-3 of undetermined capacity [GlobalSecurity.org].
So Hyung Kim, Kwang Ho Ahn, Ho Jin Park, Heekun Roh
Korea Science Academy of KAIST
Prof. Jaemyung Ahn
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
APEC Youth Scientist Journal Vol. IV, No.1

The design of the mission and the trajectory for the Korean lunar exploration program. For this research, previous lunar missions carried out by other countries were benchmarked. Korean experts who are involved in the lunar exploration program were interviewed so that various perspectives on Korean lunar program can be collected. Using the space exploration simulation program STK (Satellite Tool Kit), we designed three Korean lunar exploration missions, called Boreum-1, Boreum-2, and Boreum-3.

Boreum-1 mission is a lunar orbiter mission using direct injection trajectory.

Boreum-2 mission is a lunar landing and sample return mission. Boreum3 mission is a Earth-Moon lagrange point (L1) exploration mission. We expect that the results of this research will contribute to the future Korean lunar exploration program.

By this research we designed three lunar exploration missions and named it ‘Boreum’.

Boreum means full moon in Korean. To have symbolic meaning as a first Korean lunar exploration project, we designed each mission to be held on Chuseok in year 2020, 2025, and 2030. Chuseok is a Korean thanksgiving day, which is represented with a full moon (Boreum). Boreum 1 mission uses Korean Space Launch Vehicle 2 (KSLV-2) which is now in research process. Boreum 2 and Boreum 3 mission requires technological advancement from Boreum 1, so that Boreum 2 and Boreum 3 to be placed after conductiong Boreum 1 mission.
Review this comprehensive student scenario, HERE (pdf).

From left to right, So Hyung Kim, Kwang Ho Ahn, Ho Jin Park and Heekun Roh [KSA/KAIST].

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