SEOUL– South Korea’s unmanned space vehicle Danuri will perform its first lunar orbit insertion (LOI) maneuver later this week as a way to enter the orbit around the moon as planned, the science ministry said Thursday.
The LOI is the adjustment process for a space vehicle to lower its speed and commit itself to the gravity of the moon in order to achieve the lunar orbit of 100 kilometer altitude.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said Danuri is scheduled to carry out its first LOI maneuver on Saturday and four other rounds of LOI maneuvers in the coming days before being captured in the lunar orbit on Dec. 29.
The results of the first LOI maneuver will come out two days later, the ministry added.
Danuri, also known as the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, was launched in August aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the U.S. state of Florida for South Korea’s first lunar mission. It has traveled a cumulative 5.94 million km so far.
It successfully completed its long distance data transmission tests last month, sending texts and images from space to Earth.
After entering the lunar orbit later this month as planned, Danuri will measure terrain, magnetic strengths, gamma rays and other traits of the lunar surface using six onboard instruments during its yearlong mission starting in January. The orbiter will also identify potential landing sites for future lunar missions.
Source: Yonhap News Agency