Seung Jo Kim

Kim developed the general purpose parallel finite element code, IPSAP (Internet Parallel Structural Analysis Program) in the mid-1990s, which can be run efficiently not only on an ordinary SMP supercomputer but also in the distributed computing environment like clusters and PCs connected through the Internet. Due to these research achievements, his research team was designated as the National Research Laboratory (NRL) by the South Korean government. This designation awarded to him a five-year (1999~2004) commitment of about one million dollars for research on aerospace structures and materials. He carried out three more years (2006~2009) of NRL research after receiving one of the best evaluations on the achievement of his first five years of NRL research.

Since 2006, Kim has been distributing the developed code, IPSAP, to structural engineers around the world free of charge through the website, https://web.archive.org/web/20081216044155/http://teragate.snu.ac.kr/. He also developed a GUI (Graphic User Interface), DIAMOND, as Pre-Post Processor for the IPSAP. It is also being distributed as free software.

These activities attracted Microsoft and he was able to have a 3-year research contract with Microsoft under the title of "Development of High Performance/Friendlier FE Software IPSAP for Windows Cluster OS." Related to this work, he also received "Leadership Award for Technical Computing" from Microsoft in March 2007.

Kim led the Seoul National University's conclusion of an MOU on developing a high performance super-computer with Microsoft, Intel and Samsung Electronics in 2002. Based on this MOU, a 1 Tera flop super-computer, PEGASUS was developed in November 2002. PEGASUS is composed of 520 CPUs and 260 calculation nodes. It was 56th highest performance super-computer in the world at that time.

Since 2000 Kim has been doing research on the cyclocopter with 4 rotors. In 2012 he held an outdoor flight demonstration of the cyclocopter for the first time in the world. The cyclocopter is a new VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) air vehicle that employs a unique propulsion system of cycloidal blades to generate the propulsion and lift for a VTOL maneuver. The rotor system consists of several blades rotating about a horizontal axis that is perpendicular to the direction of normal flight. The cycloidal propeller offers powerful thrust levels, and a unique ability to change the direction of the thrust almost instantly.

Kim was the leader of the planning research on the KOMPSAT-3. Kim led the final development, launch, and early operation of the KOMPSAT-3 which was launched on May 18, 2012. The KOMPSAT-3 is a high resolution earth observation satellite equipped with a 0.7m resolution optical camera in order to fulfill the national demand for sub-metric resolution satellite imagery. KOMPSAT-3 was developed independently from design to final assembly. With KOMPSAT-3, South Korea became the fourth country to have a sub-metric resolution satellite.

Kim participated in setting up the organization of the smart UAV development program which was started in July 2002 as one of the Frontier R&D Programs supported by the South Korean government. After his inauguration, Kim led the completion of transition flight and test flew the smart UAV. Thus, South Korea became the second country which indigenously developed the core technologies for tilt-rotor aircraft. With the Smart UAV program KARI acquired original technologies of future PAV (Personal Aerial Vehicle) and is now working with industries to put the tilt-rotor UAV system to practical uses and to generate subsequent programs for production.

KARI has been developing South Korea's first space launch vehicle KSLV-I or NARO, since 2002 to deliver a 100 kg-class satellite into a Low Earth Orbit. Kim was a member of the advisory committee of Naro development and a member of the accident investigation board after the failure of the 1st Naro launch. After his inauguration, Kim played a leading role in investigating the causes of launch delays and solved related problems. Eventually, Naro was successfully launched on Jan 30 2013.

Now Kim is guiding the development of the KSLV-II which can put a 1.5 ton-class application satellite into a 600~800 km sun-synchronous orbit on the basis of the technical achievements and experiences of KSLV-I. Kim hopes that the KSLV program will be a cornerstone for South Korea’s entrance into the global launch service market.

Kim completed the launch (Aug 22, 2013) of the KOMPSAT-5 which is equipped with a SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) instrument. KOMPSAT-5 is being operated at a mean altitude of 550 km in a Dawn-Dusk orbit and will conduct all weather and all day observation of the earth during its five-year mission period.

The STSAT-3 project was initiated in December 2006 and the flight model of the STSAT-3 was launched into a sun-synchronous orbit at a nominal altitude of 600 km on 21 November 2013. Kim led the final development of the STSAT-3 whose mass is about 170 kg. The STSAT-3 carried an infrared (IR) camera for space observation and an imaging spectrometer for earth observation. STSAT-3 will analyze near-infrared radiation from space, observe the atmosphere of the earth and detect forest fires during its 2-year mission lifetime.

Kim has been leading the development of KSDS since August 2012 in order to increase the efficiency of satellite design and analysis along with reducing development cost and time. The KSDS is capable of performing solar cell degradation, AOCS (Attitude & Orbit Control Subsystem) disturbance, thermal, radiation, link budget, power budget, radiation dose, and contamination analysis. These solvers are all integrated into a framework providing user-friendly pre-post processing. The KSDS thermal analysis is based on the finite element method and has functions of importing and post-processing the structure model of NASTRAN and IPSAP. KSDS will be a useful tool in not only designing satellites, but also educating future space engineers in South Korea.