South Korea’s first lunar probe Danuri begins to enter lunar orbit
Danori, South Korea’s first deep space exploration mission, has finally reached the moon after a four-month journey.
the Danori The spacecraft is expected to begin entering lunar orbit on Friday (Dec. 17) at 2:45 p.m. EDT (1945 GMT, 2:45 a.m. Dec. 17 in South Korea), according to a statement. (Opens in a new tab) From the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). This maneuver, the first of five planned engines burning through Dec. 28 to improve Danuri’s lunar orbit, will clear the way for the probe to begin its lunar science goals.
Danuri, also known as the Korean Orbiter Pathfinder (KPLO), began its long, indirect journey to the Moon on August 4, release On SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida. Curry Institute officials said the lunar probe has traveled more than 3.3 million miles (5.4 million kilometers) in its journey so far.
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The successful launch put Danuri into a lunar ballistic transfer orbit, which took the probe on a 134-day, orbital, fuel-efficient journey through Earth and lunar space. It finally entered a polar lunar orbit with a target average altitude of 60 miles (100 km) above the lunar surface.
The 1,495-pound (678-kilogram) KPLO is South Korea’s first expedition mission to go beyond Earth’s orbit. This $180 million mission is ambitious; Danuri packs six separate science payloads designed to collect data for a range of Science goals. Five of these instruments—a terrain imager, a wide-angle polarimeter camera, a magnetometer, a gamma spectrometer, and a new networking technology test payload—were developed by Korean universities and research institutions.
NASA also has a presence on board in the form of a sixth payload: a highly sensitive camera called ShadowCam It was designed to scope out permanently shaded regions at the moon’s poles for hints of water ice deposits. The data from the device could be useful to NASA Artemis programWhich aims to create a sustainable human presence on the moon.
After its first maneuver to enter orbit, Danory is expected to follow it up with four more during the lunar approaches on Dec. 21, Dec. 23, Dec. 26 and Dec. 28 before settling into a final orbit on Dec. 29, Carey wrote. in the current situation (Opens in a new tab). All of these dates are in South Korean local time.
KPLO is part of the growing international interest and activity in the Moon. For example, Danuri reached the moon a month after NASA Capstone cubes. agency Artemis 1 The mission was successfully launched into lunar orbit and saw the Orion spacecraft return to Earth during the time Danuri was on its way to the Moon.
Danuri also marks the first step toward larger lunar ambitions for South Korea, which also envisions a robotic moon landing. 2032 (Opens in a new tab) and a mission to Mars in 2045.
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