Korea's first lunar exploration mission 'Danuri' launching next week: All you need to know

Korea's first lunar probe 'Danuri'

South Korean space agency, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), is gearing up for the launch of its first lunar exploration mission, the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri.

KPLO is the first space exploration mission of the Republic of Korea (ROK) that will travel beyond Earth's orbit. It is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on August 3, 2022 (Korean Time).

더 먼 우주를 향한 대한민국의 첫 번째 도전대한민국 최초 달 탐사선 '다누리'다누리가 제작 및 점검 작업을 모두 마치고오늘(5일) 발사장으로 이송을 시작했습니다.다누리는 이송 후 발사장에서약 한 달간 발사준비 과정을 거친 뒤2022년 8월 3일 발사될 예정입니다.#다누리 #달탐사선 pic.twitter.com/IRR0FmYm3G

— 한국항공우주연구원 (@kari2030) July 5, 2022

KPLO will orbit the Moon for about a year and the main objectives of this mission will be to:

• Develop and verify space technologies suitable for deep-space exploration on future lunar missions
• Conduct scientific investigations of the lunar environment, topography, and resources to aid future robotic landing missions to the Moon

To achieve these objectives, the KPLO lunar orbiter will carry a payload of six scientific instruments including NASA's ShadowCam, which will be used to obtain optical images at high resolution of the permanently shadowed regions at the lunar poles of the Moon that are thought to contain ice. The five other science instruments include:

• Lunar Terrain Imager (LUTI)
• Wide-Angle Polarimetric Camera (PolCam)
• KPLO Magnetometer (KMAG)
• KPLO Gamma Ray Spectrometer (KGRS)
• Delay-Tolerant Networking experiment (DTNPL)

Video Credit: YouTube/Korea Aerospace Research Institute KARI TV