A Falcon 9 rocket during its launch last July. Photo: SpaceX
South Korea is embarking on its first lunar mission, and SpaceX has been brought in to help. You can watch this historic performance live here.
It’s hard to believe, but the upcoming launch marks the first time SpaceX will directly send a payload to a ballistic lunar transfer orbit. And as for South Korea, this marks its first mission to the moon, adding itself (fingers crossed) to a very small list of nations to do so.
The payload of the day is the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri, on a mission managed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, at 7:08 p.m. ET. The live stream will begin 15 minutes before launch, which you can watch on SpaceX or in the feed provided below.
KPLO mission
To be fair, SpaceX has sent an object to the moon before, namely the Israeli Beresheet Moon lander (which crashed on the lunar surface in 2019), but that was as part of a routine Falcon 9 rideshare mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit around the Earth. Once in space, Beresheet used its own power to gradually increase its altitude, eventually entering its lunar orbit (and the mission failure had nothing to do with SpaceX). Additionally, the privately held company has sent objects deep into the solar system before, including a red Tesla Roadster, but has never sent anything directly to our beloved moon before.
That will change today. SpaceX reports an 80% chance of favorable weather. If the launch must be aborted, the company will try again tomorrow at 7:00 PM ET.
After the stage split, the first stage will attempt to land on the Just Read the Instructions drone ship, which is currently stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. This particular booster has already made several successful landings. Once in space and about 34 minutes into the mission, the second stage will perform a restart, with the engine shutting down when the mission clock reaches 35:15. Danuri will deploy and begin its journey to the Moon five minutes later.
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Diagram depicting the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO). Image: KAVI
The 1,100-pound (500-kilogram) probe will enter lunar polar orbit in mid-December, where it will operate 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface for at least a year. If the mission is extended, KPLO will drop to an orbit that is 43 miles (70 km) above the Moon. A post from Teslarati explains why it will take so long for Danuri to reach its target orbit:
Instead of launching the satellite as a payload for a shared ride to Earth orbit, KPLO… will be the only spacecraft aboard the Falcon 9, and the SpaceX rocket will directly send the orbiter on a type of translunar injection (TLI) trajectory known as ballistic lunar transfer. BLT is much slower than some alternative TLI trajectories, but it trades speed for extreme efficiency, making launch easier for the Falcon 9 and ultimately giving the orbiter more useful time around the Moon, requiring less fuel for entry in orbit.
The mission’s main goals are to “develop indigenous technologies for lunar exploration, demonstrate a ‘space internet’ and conduct scientific studies of the lunar environment, topography and resources, as well as identify potential landing sites for future missions,” according to NASA. The space agency provided a high-sensitivity camera for the mission, with South Korea developing its four other instruments: a lunar terrain imager, a wide-angle polarimetric camera (called PolCam), a magnetometer, and a gamma-ray spectrometer. Combined, these five devices weigh no more than 88 lbs (40 kg).
A contingent of NASA-sponsored scientists will participate in the analysis of incoming data from the mission. Using PolCam, scientists at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, will study lunar pyroclastic deposits – ash deposits that formed long ago as a result of violent volcanic eruptions. “Such ash deposits can be obtained deep in the lunar interior and may contain volatile materials, including water,” according to an emailed statement from SSI. “Thus, they have the potential to provide information about the nature of the lunar interior and represent a potential resource for future human exploitation of lunar resources.”
We wish South Korea well in this important mission as yet another nation seeks to establish a presence around the Moon.
More: These failed moon missions remind us that space is hard.
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