SEOUL– South Korea’s unmanned space vehicle Danuri has sent its first-ever photos of the surface of the moon after starting orbiting Earth’s natural satellite a month ago, the state space research center said Monday.
Danuri, which entered the selenocentric orbit on Dec. 27 after 145 days of traveling from Earth, has gone through test runs for about a month, starting from Jan. 2, to transform its system to the main operation mode from the traveling mode to carry out its mission on the moon.
During the test operations, Danuri, which is rotating around the moon 100 kilometers above the surface, took pictures of Vallis Rheita on Jan. 5, Sea of Rains on Jan. 10 and Ocean of Storms on Jan. 13 with its high-definition cameras, according to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
They are South Korea’s first selenographic photos, added KARI.
Also, Danuri sent photos of Earth, which it had taken every day from Jan. 6-Feb. 4, showing phases of the planet from the moon’s point of view.
KARI said Danuri has successfully completed the trial operation earlier this month, finding no functional problems, and started its main operation on Feb. 4.
Danuri 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.
Source: Yonhap News Agency