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South Korea is headed for the moon.
Final night time, the nation launched its first-ever lunar mission—in actual fact, its first-ever mission past low Earth orbit. Previously referred to as the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), the mission, managed by the Korea Aerospace Analysis Institute (KARI), is now named Danuri, a play on the Korean phrases for “moon” and “get pleasure from.” Its main purpose is to check South Korea’s lunar spacecraft know-how earlier than it makes a bid to land on the floor, tentatively in 2030 if all goes properly.
Danuri launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Area Drive Station at 7:08 p.m. EDT on August 4, with the rocket’s booster touchdown efficiently on the drone ship “Simply Learn the Directions” just some minutes after liftoff.
The spacecraft is now on a really circuitous path to the moon. It can first fly in direction of the solar earlier than looping again in direction of its vacation spot, arriving in lunar orbit in mid-December. Taking this longer route, often called a ballistic lunar switch, makes use of a gravity help by the solar to make the journey extra fuel-efficient.
When Danuri arrives on the moon, stationed in a 62-mile-high orbit, it’s going to carry out analysis with its six science devices: a magnetometer, a gamma-ray spectrometer, an experimental communications system, and three cameras, together with one designed by NASA that’s delicate sufficient to see contained in the moon’s completely shadowed craters, which might include water ice.
Ought to the mission achieve success, South Korea will turn out to be the eighth political physique to execute a moon mission, becoming a member of america, the previous Soviet Union, China, Japan, India, Luxembourg, and the European Union. The vast majority of these missions have been flybys and orbiters, plus a handful of robotic landings, and solely six human landings.
It’s a busy yr for the moon. NASA just lately launched its CAPSTONE mission, and its Artemis I mission is because of launch later this month. Russia is slated to make its return to the moon for the primary time since 1976 with its Luna-25 lander, scheduled to launch late this yr. And a number of other non-public organizations are moon-bound, together with American corporations Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, which can fly below NASA’s Industrial Lunar Payload Providers (CLPS) program, in addition to Japanese firm ispace, which can carry a rover constructed by the United Arab Emirates.
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