Space

South Korea’s 1st moon mission liftoff!

Posted by
Dave Adalian
and
August 4, 2022
Rocket heading upward.
Image of the August 4, 2022 launch of South Korea’s 1st moon mission, via Stephen Marr (@spacecoast_stve on Twitter). He wrote: “Go Falcon 9! The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter satellite is making its way to the moon!”

South Korea’s 1st moon mission

South Korea has now launched its first mission to the moon. We in the west call it the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, or KPLO. The South Korean Ministry of Science calls it Danuri, meaning moon enjoy. A SpaceX Falcon 9 boosted the mission to Earth orbit just after 7 p.m. EDT on August 4, 2022. Afterwards, the first stage booster then dropped successfully to the SpaceX drone ship Just Read the Instructions, in the Atlantic, for later refurbishment.

The KPLO spacecraft – which was developed and managed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) – is now in Earth orbit. Later, a translunar injection burn will send it on its way to the moon.

The plan is to bring the spacecraft to the moon in mid-December.

It’ll orbit the moon for 1 year

Once at the moon, KPLO will first go into an elliptical lunar orbit, and then a 60 mile (100-km) polar orbit. From there, the spacecraft will conduct science operations for about a year. NASA noted:

It’ll [carry] an array of South Korean experiments and one U.S.-built instrument. The objectives are to develop indigenous lunar exploration technologies, demonstrate a ‘space internet,’ and conduct scientific investigations of the lunar environment, topography, and resources, as well as identify potential landing sites for future missions …

NASA’s ShadowCam will ride along on the moon mission

NASA is flying its ShadowCam instrument aboard the lunar orbiter. It’ll be one of five instruments aboard Korea’s first moon mission. Investigators at Arizona State University and Malin Space Science Systems developed ShadowCam. NASA said:

ShadowCam will map the reflectance [brightness] within the permanently shadowed regions to search for evidence of frost or ice deposits. The instrument’s optical camera is based on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow Angle Camera, but is 800 times more sensitive …

ShadowCam will … detect seasonal changes and measure the terrain inside the craters, including the distribution of boulders.

Read more about ShadowCam

SpaceX and South Korea: More to come

Thursday’s launch via a Falcon 9 is expected to be only the beginning of the relationship between South Korea and SpaceX, the world’s busiest launch provider.

Some time in 2023, SpaceX will launch the first of five spy satellites for South Korea. The eavesdropping sats will be used to monitor North Korea’s growing nuclear capability, giving the South Korean military imagery with 30- to 60-centimeter (12- to 24-inches) resolution every two hours. The launch contract was formalized in April 2022 and runs through 2025.

Moon mission: Left panel: a permanently shadowed lunar crater. Right panel: a spacecraft mapping the crater from above.
Artist’s concept of the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter mapping permanently shadowed areas of the lunar surface. The KPLO, South Korea’s 1st lunar mission, will launch Thursday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 lift vehicle. Image via KARI.

Bottom line: South Korea launched its first mission to the moon on August 4, 2022.

Check out EarthSky’s Launches blog … the best in spaceflight updates.

Posted 
August 4, 2022
 in 
Space

Dave Adalian

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About the Author:
Award-winning reporter and editor Dave Adalian's love affair with the cosmos began during a long-ago summer school trip to the storied and venerable Lick Observatory atop California's Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose in the foggy Diablos Mountain Range and far above Monterey Bay at the edge of the endless blue Pacific Ocean. That field trip goes on today, as Dave still pursues his nocturnal adventures, perched in the darkness at his telescope's eyepiece or chasing wandering stars through the fields of night with the unaided eye. A lifelong resident of California's Tulare County - an agricultural paradise where the Great San Joaquin Valley meets the Sierra Nevada in endless miles of grass-covered foothills - Dave grew up in a wilderness larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined, one choked with the greatest diversity of flora and fauna in the US, one which passes its nights beneath pitch black skies rising over the some of highest mountain peaks and greatest roadless areas on the North American continent. Dave studied English, American literature and mass communications at the College of the Sequoias and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has worked as a reporter and editor for a number of news publications on- and offline during a career spanning nearly 30 years so far. His fondest literary hope is to share his passion for astronomy and all things cosmic with anyone who wants to join in the adventure and explore the universe's past, present and future.

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