2023-05-07 05:06:13
South Korea’s first lunar orbiter captures breathtakingly majestic lunarscapes of our neighboring celestial body, the Moon, in stunning detail.
The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri, entered lunar low orbit in mid-December last year and has already returned a series of impressive lunar images back to Earth.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) has since updated its webpage with stunning photos that clearly show the lunar geology.
All of the captured images were taken by a high-resolution camera (LUTI) mounted on Danuri, and detailed shapes such as craters on the lunar surface and peaks within craters can be clearly identified.
Among the lunar images of KARI released in April, there is Tsiolkovsky Crater named following Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), a former Soviet physicist who formulated the rocket equation that the ideal arrival speed of a rocket is proportional to the ejection speed of gas. is included This large crater on the far side of the Moon was discovered by the Soviet Union’s Luna 3 mission.
Captured by Danuri’s high-resolution camera, the image focuses on a central peak towering over 3,200 meters above the crater floor.
Other images are equally eye-catching, of the Schrödinger Valley and Witzmann Crater. It shows the magnificent Schrödinger Valley, which is 8-10 km wide and 320 km long across the lunar surface, and the Witzmann Crater, named following the 19th-century German astronomer Moritz LG Witzmann.
The above images were taken with a high-resolution camera developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. It is also equipped with NASA’s ShadowCam, which is optimized to be sensitive to light reflected from the moon’s surface, allowing you to take a closer look at the shadowed craters.
Danuri’s main mission is to take numerous images and measurements of the lunar surface over the course of a year. According to NASA, a partner in the KPLO mission, this data is intended to support future lunar landing robot missions.
The United States and South Korea are strengthening their ties in space. In May, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visited the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and pledged cooperation in the space sector, including efforts to monitor climate change using satellites.
Lee Kwang-sik, science columnist [email protected]
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