Here is an update on South Korea’s first lunar orbiter:
South Korea’s unmanned space vehicle Danuri has sent photos of the moon’s far side during its mission to collect selenographic data, the science ministry said Wednesday.
Danuri, which is rotating around the moon 100 kilometers above the surface, took pictures of the Tsiolkovskiy crater on March 22 and the Vallis Schrodinger and Szilard M craters each on March 24 with its high-definition cameras, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
They are the first photos of the moon’s far side that South Korea has taken.
On top of that, Danuri has sent separate photos taken with its wide-angle polarimetric camera, PolCam for short, designed to study the moon’s surface composition and its volcanic deposits through measuring the degree of polarization.
The science ministry said people can check the real-time location of Danuri on the lunar orbit, along with its photos and collected data, on the orbiter’s website (http://www.kari.re.kr/kplo).
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
This is a good scientific achievement by the ROK:
South Korea’s unmanned space vehicle Danuri has sent back photos of Earth and the moon after reaching the moon’s orbit last month, the state space research center said Tuesday.
The orbiter began performing three rounds of lunar orbit insertion (LOI) maneuvers Dec. 17 to lower its speed and commit itself to the gravity of the moon before entering the selenocentric orbit on Dec. 27.
The first photo was taken Dec. 24 some 345 kilometers above the moon, when Danuri was carrying out its second round of LOI, and the second one was taken four days later while rotating around the satellite of Earth, according to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Here is another example of South Korea’s growing space program:
Korea on Tuesday started transporting the country’s first lunar orbiter to the United States ahead of next month’s launch using a SpaceX rocket, officials said.
Korea Times
Korea plans to launch the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, also known as Danuri, aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 8:24 a.m. on Aug. 3 (Korean Time).
According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, Danuri was sent from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, to Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, in a specially designed container.
The orbiter will be flown to Orlando International Airport and arrive at the Floridian space center Thursday. It will later undergo maintenance, assembly and other pre-launch preparations for about a month before launch.
Danuri will begin circling around the moon in December and conduct a yearlong mission to observe it using an array of instruments, including cameras and magnetometers. It will also identify potential landing sites for future lunar missions.
You can read more at the link.
I wonder if the ROK government will replace South Korean astronauts with undeserving North Korean astronauts if the Kim regime demands it like they did for the Winter Olympics?:
South Korea unveiled a long-term plan Monday to secure indigenous space technology with the aim of successfully landing a spaceship on the moon by 2030, the science ministry said.
Under the roadmap crafted and finalized by the Ministry of Science and ICT, the government will secure the necessary basic technology to send a spacecraft into lunar orbit by 2020 and to land it on the surface of Earth’s satellite a decade later.
In order to meet the goal, the ministry will begin analyzing critical related technology starting in 2019, officials said.
It marks the first time that the Moon Jae-in administration, which took office in May 2017, has mapped out a long-term strategy for space exploration. In the past, the country has mostly been busy with narrowing a technology gap with powerhouses such as the United States and Russia, the ministry said.
Under the latest plan, South Korea will also begin an era of private companies launching orbital space programs in 2026. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link.
#LunarMissionOne is serious about science on crowdfunded mission to the Moon http://t.co/rKQYLDfwFS pic.twitter.com/MffcVTCM5a” via @NatureNews
— neil (@4nks) November 19, 2014
Did anyone in Korea get any good pictures of the eclipse?
Total Eclipse begins: Oct 8 at 7:27 PM Total moon eclipse starts – completely red moon.
Maximum Eclipse: Oct 8 at 7:55 PM Moon is closest to the center of the shadow.
Total Eclipse ends: Oct 8 at 8:22 PM [Via Korea Noodles]
