The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute announced that Korea's first lunar orbiter 'Danuri' has successfully landed in the mission orbit.
The mission landed in orbit 145 days after it was launched on August 5 from the Space Force base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.
According to these agencies, Danuri performed its last mission orbital maneuver around 11:06 am on the 26th, and it was confirmed that it successfully landed in the mission orbit the next day.
Danuri is currently orbiting the moon with a cycle of about 2 hours at the target orbit of 100 ± 30 km above the moon.
Mission Orbit Maneuvering is the slowing down and closer to the moon using the orbiter's thrusters to bring the Danuri into lunar mission orbit.
Hangwooyeon originally planned to perform Danuri's mission orbit entry maneuver a total of 5 times, but achieved this result with only 3 times.
On the 17th of this month, after successfully securing the flight data of Danuri in the first entry maneuver and confirming the operational stability of the maneuver, the plan was changed to shorten the remaining four maneuvers to two.
As a result, Danuri's entry into lunar orbit was originally scheduled to be confirmed on the 29th, but it was confirmed on the 27th, two days earlier.
Danuri is expected to start full-fledged initial operation in the new year by checking the initial operation of the payload and conducting functional tests of the main body.
When Danuri begins its mission in earnest, the Korean government will take the first step toward space development projects, including landing on the moon scheduled for 2032 and developing resources thereafter.
Among the payloads on Danuri, the high-resolution camera developed by Hangwoon takes pictures of the lunar surface with a maximum resolution of 2.5m and an observation width of more than 10km.
Korea Aerospace Research Institute plans to use lunar surface information obtained from high-resolution cameras to search for lunar lander candidates.
In addition, a wide-field polarization camera (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Research Institute) and a gamma ray spectrometer (Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources) carried on Danuri are used to search for resources buried on the moon.
Using a wide-field polarization camera, titanium observations can be performed on the entire moon, the distribution of space resources on the moon, and the process of magma solidification on the lunar surface can be studied.
The gamma ray spectrometer collects more than 6 months of gamma ray measurement data, which can be used to create a map of lunar elements.
In addition, it is expected to gain new scientific knowledge about the moon, which still remains a mystery to us, through polarization imaging of the far side of the moon using the payload and research on the evolution of the moon.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and Hangwooyeon will announce details through a press briefing today (28th) at 3:00 pm.
(Photo = Provided by SpaceX, Yonhap News)