Flight tests of the KSR-III: The enhanced onboard electronics system

The third-generation Korean sounding rocket, KSR-III, was successfully launched on Nov. 28, 2002 from the western coastal area of the Korean Peninsula. The previous KSR-I and -II series had employed a solid propulsion system whereas the KSR-III utilizes Korea's first liquid propulsion system. The prime objective of the mission was to evaluate the performance of the liquid propulsion system. The onboard electronics system of the KSR-III is an enhanced version of the ones used in the previous series. The system has extended data channels and has adopted a distributed data processing system using the RS-485 bus network. The rocket has various sensors to measure physical characteristics such as temperature, pressure, strain, acceleration, etc., and has scientific instruments including an ozone detector and two magnetometers. The flight data is transmitted to the ground station in real time by the onboard telemetry system. The onboard electronics system of the KSR-III mainly consists of telemetry, an RF subsystem, a tele-command system, a power supply system, and scientific payloads. Herein, we present an overview of the enhanced electronics system of the KSR-III and representative flight test results analyses including scientific data are discussed.