Danuri: Korea's first lunar orbiter Options

[Phil Stooke]

https://www.kari.re.kr/eng/sub03_07_01.do


The link is to the Korean Space Agency's page on Danuri, the nation's first lunar orbiter. It will launch from the US in early August and orbit the Moon for a year. Of particular note is he inclusion of Shadowcam, a US payload modified from the LRO NAC instrument to image in polar shadows. I think I have seen it is 200 times more sensitive that NAC. We can hope for a lot of interesting images of polar areas. Work on a followup lander is in progress but may be slow.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Thanks, Mike.

Thinking about its operation... an area near a PSR but not in it will often be shadowed but sometimes illuminated. When it is illuminated NAC can see it perfectly well, but it will have very pronounced shadows which might complicate mission planning (e.g. a rover traverse into the PSR). There might be some occasions where an area like that could be imaged while in shadow, with the more diffuse reflected light softening the shadows enough to be helpful.

I look forward to seeing the images.

Phil

[mcaplinger]

I look forward to seeing the images.

As do we! Keep in mind that while the launch is just a week away, it takes KPLO quite a while to get to the Moon; mapping won't start until sometime in December, I think. See https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal...missions/k/kplo