The first Korean lunar orbiter “Danuri” will enter the lunar gravitational field on December 17 and will be located at an altitude of 100 km above the Moon, in the orbit of its mission.
The Falcon 9 launch vehicle with the Danuri lunar probe, South Korea’s first interplanetary spacecraft, launched from Cape Canaveral. The probe will work in a near-lunar polar orbit for at least a year, exploring the composition and structure of the Moon’s surface, and will also look for ice deposits in the polar craters of the Moon. The launch was broadcast on Youtube.
KPLO (Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter) became the first spacecraft of South Korea launched beyond Earth orbit. It was created The Korean Institute of Astronomy and Space Sciences for more than six years, while NASA contributed to the project by supplying one of the scientific instruments, as well as pledging to help support communication with the device. The second official name of the probe is “Danuri”, which means “enjoy the Moon” in Korean. The launch of Danuri will be the first stage of the South Korean lunar program, the second stage of which will start in 2025, when an orbiter and a lander with a lunar rover will be sent to the Moon.
The total mass of the probe is 678 kilograms, it is equipped with two solar panels, a parabolic antenna, a propulsion system of eight orbital maneuvering and orientation control engines, as well as five scientific instruments. The LUTI camera (LUnar Terrain Imager) will receive detailed images of the Moon’s surface, the PolCam camera will conduct polarimetric observations of the Moon in the optical and ultraviolet wavelengths. The KMAG magnetometer will study the Moon’s magnetic field and lunar vortices, and the KGRS gamma spectrometer will study the distribution of various chemical elements and water in the surface layer of the Moon. The latest scientific device will be a highly sensitive ShadowCam camera developed by NASA and designed to capture permanently shaded craters near the poles of the Moon. In addition, there is a DTNPL (Delay-Tolerant Networking experiment) experiment on board the device to create a delay-resistant communication channel with Earth.
