With the launch of its first probe headed for the moon, it made it clear that although it is considered the world’s tenth largest economy, it is one of the world’s seven nations with the greatest interest in space. The South Korean scientific spacecraft is called Danuri, which means “enjoy the moon” in English, weighs 678 kilograms, is cube-shaped, measures 3.18 x 6.3 x 2.67 meters and, according to the Seoul government, cost 182 million dollars. PHOTO/KARI – The Danuri lunar probe carries six scientific instruments, weighs 678 kg, is shaped like a cube, measures 3.18 x 6.3 x 2.67 meters and has required an investment of 182 million dollars In a way, Korea followed in the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates, which relied on Japan and the H-IIA rocket to send its first interplanetary probe, the Al Amal Mars spacecraft, to Mars. In Korea’s case, it chose its great ally, the United States, and the Danuri was launched late on August 4 from the Cape Canaveral Launch Complex in Florida. A Falcon 9 carrier from US tycoon Elon Musk’s SpaceX was responsible for the launch en route. The spacecraft lifted off on the same day US Sen. Nancy Pelosi arrived in Seoul to support the Asian country in maintaining a strong deterrent against North Korea and pursuing its denuclearization. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office on May 10, had the opportunity to speak with Pelusi by phone, thanking him for his gesture and explaining that Danuri will serve “to strengthen the space economy and of Korea’s scientific know-how”. If the probe succeeds in reaching lunar orbit, the Republic of Korea will become the seventh nation to explore the Moon on the ground, joining Russia, the United States, China, India, the European Space Agency and the Japan. But the South Korean mission is not an isolated initiative. “The first step of our national space exploration program is the moon,” says Science Minister Lee Jong-ho. PHOTO/AP – The launch of South Korea’s spacecraft into space from Florida coincided (Aug. 4) with a quick visit to Seoul by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Hyundai and Kia will be on the moon in 2031 The president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Professor Lee Sang-ryool, confirmed that “there are technologies we need to improve, but we can travel and land on the moon with our own capabilities.” Seoul plans to launch a lunar surface module along with a small rover by 2031. And they are already working on it. On July 27, carmakers Hyundai and Kia signed an agreement with six Korean research institutes to develop robotic technologies to equip the country’s future space rover. Adding to the project is Korea’s extensive space business network, which builds satellites and even the KSLV-II Nuri launcher, which successfully completed its second successful space flight from the Naro Space Center in South Korea on October 21. PHOTO/KARI – The KARI lunar exploration program predicts that the probe will launch now and follow a lander with a rover to survey the terrain of our natural satellite by 2030 As for the Danuri probe – also known as the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter or KPLO – the Korean Ministry of Science and Telecommunications has already verified its proper working condition in orbit and confirmed that “the solar panels are producing sufficient power and all onboard devices are working properly ». It is monitored throughout the mission by the three communications stations of NASA’s Deep Space Network: the US station in Goldstone, California; the Australian station near Canberra. and the Spanish station located in the municipality of Robledo de Chavela, near Madrid. Korea also maintains partial contact with the probe through the large satellite dish it has built in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province. Danuri will reach its long-awaited goal by the end of the year, rather than in about six days, the time it took the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 to travel nearly 400,000 kilometers. The reason is that the South Korean spacecraft does not follow a direct orbit, which consumes a lot of energy. Instead, it flies in the direction of the Sun. It follows a so-called “lunar ballistic transfer” trajectory with low energy and fuel consumption, until it reaches the so-called Lagrange Point 1 (L1), located 1.56 million kilometers from our Blue Planet, where the pull of the Sun is balanced by The pull land. There it will slow down and relaunch towards the Moon. PHOTO/KARI – The probe is monitored by NASA’s three Deep Space Network communications complexes (Goldstone, Canberra and Spain’s Robledo de Chávela) along with Korea’s Yeoju 135 days to reach lunar orbit It is a similar path to that followed by the small American probe Capstone. Weighing 25 kg and launched into orbit by NASA on June 28 from New Zealand, it is scheduled to reach the moon on November 13, meaning it will take 136 days to reach the moon. If the Danuri mission proceeds according to the calculations of KARI engineers, the craft will be captured by the Moon on December 16 after 135 days, that is, four and a half months after the start of its flight. On December 31, it will be placed in a circular orbit at an altitude of one hundred kilometers above the surface of the Moon. Once the six onboard science instruments are stabilized and tested, the spacecraft will begin observing and collecting data in early January. PHOTO/CURRY – Danuri does not follow a straight path. It flies on a low-energy, low-fuel lunar rendezvous en route to LaGrange Point 1 (L1), where it will re-transfer to the Moon One of the instruments has been provided by NASA. It’s the ShadowCam camera, an evolution of the camera on the US Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched on June 18, 2009, but about 200 times more sensitive. Its task is to map with a resolution of up to 1.7 meters per pixel the terrain of the lunar regions at both poles which are always in shadow. ShadowCam is intended to locate water ice deposits and other resources to help plan future manned missions and establish viable bases. ShadowCam and communications aren’t NASA’s only contribution. The Agency provides technical assistance, navigation technologies, and, in cooperation with the Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, a kind of interplanetary Internet to prevent interruption of transmissions on Earth. PHOTO/KARI – Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) president Professor Lee Sang-ryool says Korea needs to improve its space technologies, but can travel and land on the moon on its own The other four instruments are a magnetometer (KMAG) to monitor the magnetic field between Earth and the Moon. a Gamma-ray Spectrometer (KGRS) to search for spontaneous gamma-ray bursts produced by massive dying stars. a wide-angle polarimetric camera (PolCam) to analyze the properties of grains deposited on the lunar surface. For the descent mission planned for 2031, it incorporates a high resolution imager (LUTI), which will provide images to KARI technicians to determine the most suitable landing spots.
