Light it up like dynamite: South Korea launches first lunar mission

By Georgina Torbet Published August 6, 2022

South Korea began its first mission to the moon this week with the launch of its Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) mission from Florida. Using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the uncrewed spacecraft was launched on a course to enter orbit around the moon in a year-long mission which sees the country becoming one of a small group of nations to launch lunar missions.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/dAQGvpcOCX

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 4, 2022

The KPLO spacecraft launched from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, with liftoff at 7:08 p.m. ET on Thursday, August 4 shown in video footage shared by SpaceX. The spacecraft will now travel for four and a half months, using a fuel-efficient path called a ballistic trajectory which will take it into orbit around the moon. It will enter a polar lunar orbit at 62 miles (100 kilometers) and will begin an 11-month mission to collect geological and other data.

Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) mission launches on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on August 4. — Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) mission launches on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on August 4. SpaceX

The orbiting spacecraft has been named Danuri, which combines two Korean works meaning moon (da) and enjoy (nuri). In a nod to one of Korea’s most popular cultural exports, the wireless space communication system which the orbiter will try out during its mission will use the song Dynamite by K-pop band BTS in a test. Called the Disruption Tolerant Network experiment payload (DTNPL), the idea is to work on a communications network that can handle disruptions.

Recommended Videos

Further hardware on the orbiter includes a NASA instrument called ShadowCam which will investigate craters on the moon that are perpetually in shadow, looking for resources such as water that could be held there. Other instruments will investigate gamma-ray bursts, the magnetic field between Earth and the moon, and a high-resolution camera for taking images of the moon’s surface.

“If this mission succeeds, South Korea will become the seventh country in the world to have launched an unmanned probe to the Moon,” an official at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute said to AFP, as reported by Al Jazeera. “It is a huge moment for South Korea’s space development program, and we hope to continue contributing to the global understanding of the Moon with what Danuri is set to find out.”

Georgina Torbet

Former Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Topics

Space

SpaceX Starship reaches orbit for the first time but its historic flight ends early

Starship reaches orbit for the first time and deploys 26 Starlink satellites before an early splashdown.

spacex-starship

After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180

Space

Starship is finally going orbital, and SpaceX has picked September 22

Flight 14 is aiming for orbit, Starlink V3 deployment and a very long day in space.

Starship rocket.

SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.

Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver

Space

Want a city on the Moon? Scientists say there’s not enough water

A billion tons still comes up short

Artist impression of activities in a Moon Base.

For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.

A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.