This photo of Vallis Schrodinger, provided by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), was taken March 24, 2023, with a camera onboard the South Korean lunar orbiter Danuri.
SEOUL, April 12 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s unmanned space vehicle Danuri has sent photos of the moon’s far side during its mission to collect selenographic data, the science ministry said Wednesday.
Danuri, which is rotating around the moon 100 kilometers above the surface, took pictures of the Tsiolkovskiy crater on March 22 and the Vallis Schrodinger and Szilard M craters each on March 24 with its high-definition cameras, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
They are the first photos of the moon’s far side that South Korea has taken.
On top of that, Danuri has sent separate photos taken with its wide-angle polarimetric camera, PolCam for short, designed to study the moon’s surface composition and its volcanic deposits through measuring the degree of polarization.
The science ministry said people can check the real-time location of Danuri on the lunar orbit, along with its photos and collected data, on the orbiter’s website.
Danuri entered the selenocentric orbit on Dec. 27 after 145 days of traveling from Earth and started its operation on Feb. 4 about a month after test runs.
It is assigned to measure the terrain, magnetic strengths, gamma rays and other traits of the lunar surface using six onboard instruments until the end of this year. The orbiter will also identify potential landing sites for future lunar missions.
(Yonhap)
