Joining the list of nations with ambitious plans in space, South Korea set off for the moon on Thursday.
Its first lunar spacecraft, called Danuri, was carried into space on time at 7:08 p.m. ET by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. After about 40 minutes and a series of engine firings, the Korean spacecraft separated from the rocket’s second stage, setting off on its journey to the moon.
When it arrives in lunar orbit, it will join NASA, Indian and Chinese spacecraft currently exploring Earth’s moon. Danuri’s science payload will study the moon’s magnetic field, measure the amounts of elements and molecules such as uranium, water and helium-3, and photograph the dark craters at the poles, where the sun never shines.
What is Danuri and what will it study?
Originally known as the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, the mission is now named Danuri, a portmanteau of the Korean words for “moon” and “enjoy.” It will be South Korea’s first space mission to go beyond low Earth orbit.
Its scientific instruments include a magnetometer, a gamma spectrometer and three cameras. NASA supplied one of the cameras, the ShadowCam, which is sensitive enough to pick up the few photons that bounce off the terrain in the moon’s dark, permanently shadowed craters. These craters, located at the Moon’s poles, remain perpetually cold, below minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and contain water ice that has accumulated over the centuries.
The ice could provide a frozen history of 4.5 billion years of the solar system and abundant resources for future astronaut visits. Such ice could also be extracted and melted to provide water and split into oxygen and hydrogen, which would provide both air for astronauts to breathe and rocket fuel for travelers wishing to blast off from the Moon to other destinations .
What else has South Korea done in space?
South Korea is developing its own missiles. Its first design, Naro-1, successfully reached orbit on its third attempt in 2013. Since then, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute — South Korea’s equivalent of NASA — has shifted its efforts to Nuri, a larger, three-stage rocket. Nuri’s second flight in June successfully put several satellites into orbit.
How many countries have sent missions to the moon?
The United States and the Soviet Union sent multiple robotic spacecraft to the Moon in the early 1960s. NASA’s Apollo program sent astronauts there from 1968 to 1972. After that, the world almost completely lost interest in the moon for three decades, but the buzz of activity has returned.
Over the past few years, China has sent a number of successful robotic spacecraft, including three landers. NASA sent several orbiters there and recruited commercial companies to send payloads to the lunar surface in the coming years.
Japan and the European Space Agency launched lunar missions, and India sent two orbiters to the moon, although a lander accompanying the second orbiter crashed on its descent to the surface in 2019.
Another 2019 mission, Beresheet, a lander built by an Israeli nonprofit, SpaceIL, also crashed while trying to land on the moon.
Why would Danuri take so long to reach the moon?
The spacecraft takes a long, energy-efficient route to the moon. It first heads toward the sun, then turns back to be captured in lunar orbit in mid-December. This “ballistic trajectory” takes longer, but does not require a large engine to slow the spacecraft down when it reaches the moon.
Danuri will then adjust its orbit to an altitude of 62 miles above the moon’s surface. The main science mission is planned to last for one year.
What else will go to the moon this year?
A small NASA-funded spacecraft, CAPSTONE, is on its way to the Moon to explore a highly elliptical orbit, where NASA plans to build a lunar outpost for future astronauts. It is scheduled to arrive in lunar orbit in November.
But the big event of the year will be Artemis 1, an unmanned test of NASA’s giant rocket and capsule that should take astronauts back to the moon in the coming years. NASA is aiming for a late August or early September launch.
Several commercial companies, ispace of Japan and Intuitive Machines of Houston, also hope to launch small robotic landers to the moon later this year.
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