Korea is realizing its ambitions and is already traveling to meet the moon

The Republic of Korea has been keen to demonstrate that it is indeed Asia’s fourth largest space power, ranking just behind China, Japan and India in relation to space ambitions and development.

With the launch of its first moon-bound probe, it has made it clear that although it ranks as the 10th largest economy in the world, it is among the top seven nations in the world with the greatest interest in space. The South Korean scientific spacecraft is called Danuriwhich means “enjoy the moon” in English, weighs 678 kilos, is cube-shaped, measures 3.18 x 6.3 x 2.67 meters, and cost $182 million, according to the Seoul government.

In a way Korea has followed in the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates, which has relied on Japan and its H-IIA rocket to launch its first interplanetary probe, the Mars Al Amal spacecraft, to Mars. In the case of Korea, it has chosen its major ally, the United States, and Danuri’s launch took place late August 4 from the Cape Canaveral Launch Complex in Florida. A Falcon 9 vector from US tycoon Elon Musk’s SpaceX company was responsible for the launch en route.

The spacecraft launched on the same day that US Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi arrived in Seoul to help the Asian country maintain a strong deterrent against North Korea and pursue its denuclearization. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office on May 10, had the opportunity to speak to Pelusi over the phone, thanking him for his gesture and explaining that Danuri will serve to “promote Korea’s space economy and scientific expertise to promote”.

If the probe manages to reach lunar orbit, the Republic of Korea will become the seventh nation to explore the moon in situ, as Russia, the United States, China, India, the European Space Agency and Japan have already done. But the South Korean mission is not an isolated initiative. “The first step of our national space exploration program is the moon,” says Science Minister Lee Jong-ho.

Hyundai and Kia will be on the moon in 2031

This has been confirmed by the President of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Professor Lee Sang-ryool “There are technologies that we need to improve, but we can travel with our own skills and land on the moon”. Seoul wants to launch a lunar surface module along with a small rover by 2031.

And they are already working on it. On July 27, automakers Hyundai and Kia signed an agreement with six Korean research institutes to develop robotic technologies to power the country’s future spacecraft. Joining the project is Korea’s extensive network of space companies, which makes satellites and even the KSLV-II Nuri launch vehicle. which successfully completed its second successful flight from Naro Space Center in South Korea on October 21.

Regarding the Danuri probe – also known as the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter or KPLO – the Korean Ministry of Science and Telecommunications has already verified and confirmed its proper operational status in orbit “The solar panels generate sufficient electricity and all on-board devices work properly”.

It will be monitored throughout the mission by NASA’s Deep Space Network’s three communications stations: the US station in Goldstone, California; the Australian station near Canberra; and the Spanish station in the municipality of Robledo de Chavela, near Madrid. Korea also maintains partial contact with the probe via the large satellite dish it has built in Yeoju, Gyeonggi province.

Danuri will reach its long-awaited goal by the end of the year, rather than in about six days, the time it took the Apollo 11 mission to travel nearly 400,000 kilometers in 1969. The reason is that the South Korean spacecraft does not follow a direct trajectory, which consumes a lot of energy. Instead, it flies toward the sun. There follows a so-called “Lunar Ballistic Transfer” Low energy and fuel consuming trajectory until it reaches the so-called Lagrange point 1 (L1) located 1.56 million kilometers from our blue planet, where the gravitational pull of the sun is balanced by the gravitational pull of the earth. There it will slow down and be diverted towards the moon.

135 days to reach lunar orbit

It is a similar path to that of the small American probe Capstone. Weighing 25 kilos and launched by NASA on June 28th from New Zealand, it is scheduled to reach the moon on November 13th, meaning it will take 136 days to reach the moon.

If the Danuri mission proceeds according to KARI engineers’ calculations, the probe will be captured by the Moon on December 16, 135 days after it began flight, four and a half months after it began flying. On December 31, it will be placed in a circular orbit a hundred kilometers above the lunar surface. Once stabilized and the six onboard science instruments have been checked, the spacecraft will begin observing and data collection in early January.

One of the instruments was provided by NASA. It’s the ShadowCam camera, an evolution of the camera aboard the US Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched on June 18, 2009, but about 200 times more sensitive. Its task is to image the subsoil of the lunar regions at both poles, which are always in the shadows, with a resolution of up to 1.7 meters per pixel. The ShadowCam is designed to locate water ice deposits and other resources to help plan future manned missions and build sustainable bases.

ShadowCam and communications aren’t NASA’s only contribution. The agency provides technical support, navigation technologies, and a form of interplanetary internet in cooperation with the Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute to prevent disruption of transmissions to Earth.

The other four instruments are a magnetometer (KMAG) to track the magnetic field between the Earth and the Moon; a gamma-ray spectrometer (KGRS) to search for spontaneous gamma-ray bursts produced by massive dying stars; a wide-angle polarimetric camera (PolCam) to analyze the properties of grains deposited on the lunar surface. A high-resolution camera (LUTI) is integrated for the descent mission planned for 2031, which will provide images to the KARI technicians to determine the most suitable landing sites.