South Korean Moon Mission Beams Back Stunning Image Of Earth

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South Korean Moon Mission Beams Back Stunning Image Of Earth
Photo Credit: KARI

South Korea’s maiden moon mission has captured breathtaking images of Earth from its position in low lunar orbit. Danuri, also called the Kore Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), escaped Earth’s gravity atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in August last year and took four months to reach the Moon’s orbit.

 

The launch’s success has put South Korea on the elite list of nations with a successful lunar mission, which also has India, China, and Japan, among other countries. The Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) has now shared images captured by the $180 million Danuri showing the crater and lunar surface’s texture with Earth in the background.

 

LUTI Captures Astonishing Images

The images shared by the Korean space agency were taken on December 24 and 28 using the Lunar Terrain Imager (LUTI), developed by KARI. Engineers will observe these images to hunt for sites for a robotic South Korean lunar landing mission that the space agency is targeting for 2032.

Danuri or KPLO completed several burns during mid and late December, with the spacecraft going into its planned orbit, which is around 100 km above the Moon’s surface, as per a statement from KARI.

NASA Taking KARI’s Help

As of now, the orbiter is undergoing commissioning before kicking off its official science mission, which is expected to last for a year. Danuri is carrying six payloads, out of which five were developed by KARI. NASA also has an instrument aboard KPLO.

NASA’s ShadowCam was built to scope out regions at the lunar poles that are shadowed permanently. This will allow scientists to look for hints of water-ice deposits, giving valuable data for upcoming missions in NASA’s Artemis program. The main goal of this program is to set up a permanent base on the lunar surface and put astronauts back on the Moon.

Artemis Mission On The Right Path

In December, NASA shared a video showing the biggest highlights from its successful Artemis I mission, which ended with its Orion spacecraft splashing down in the Pacific ocean. The video shows how the historic mission took off aboard NASA’s next-gen Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to embark on a journey around the Moon.

During its voyage, the spacecraft used its cameras to capture some amazing images of the Moon and Earth, some of which were used for NASA’s highlights reel.

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