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South Korea launched its first mission to the moon on Aug. 5, 2022 and achieved lunar orbit four months later on Dec. 16. Named Danuri — a blending of the Korean words dal (moon) and nuri (enjoy) — it will map the moon's surface and resources to lay the groundwork for future robotic and human visits.
NASA is partnering with the Korean Aerospace Research Institute on the mission, providing technical assistance as well as expertise in space communications and navigation. The two agencies recently tested a new space-based Internet by sending photos and videos to various locations in South Korea. Among them was the hit "Dynamite" by the South Korean boy band BTS.
The orbiter carries six instruments, five from South Korea and NASA's ShadowCam , which will look for water-ice deposits in permanently shadowed craters clustered in the moon's polar regions. Faint sunlight reflected from the uppermost walls of nearby craters is their only illumination. ShadowCam's super-sensitive camera will peer into the darkness and send back images that will look as though they were taken in daylight.
Water will be a crucial resource for future lunar exploration. Naturally, astronauts will need a steady supply for drinking and other functions. But if you break water apart into oxygen and hydrogen and liquefy those gases, you've got rocket fuel for return trips to Earth or other destinations.
Danuri, which will orbit for about a year, also carries a high-resolution image to map the lunar surface for potential landing sites for future missions, a magnetometer to measure the strength of lunar magnetic fields and a gamma-ray spectrometer to measure the chemical composition of the surface.
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Cosmic rays, which are high-speed particles (mostly protons) mainly ejected by supernova explosions, permeate the galaxy. They strike and excite the atoms of elements in the moon's surface rocks. Each element gives off gamma rays of a specific energy, which the spectrometer detects and identifies.
Danuri will also survey for other lunar resources such as uranium, aluminum, silicon and helium-3 , a potential fuel source for nuclear fusion reactors. It's thought that the sun's steady stream of particles called the solar wind has embedded significant amounts of this rare helium isotope in the moon's crust.
While you and I are having fun photographing moonrises and taking moonlit walks, Danuri and its handlers are finding their own "moon enjoyment" through scientific observation. The two intersect in the beautiful images you can follow at the institute's Twitter account.
