Its main objective is to explore landing sites. Now the South Korean orbiter Danuri is sending home impressive images of the lunar surface.
South Korea’s probe Danuri surprises again and again. Just earlier this year, the spacecraft delivered spectacular images of the moon along with Earth. Now the probe has taken new pictures of the surface of the moon. And the images are stunningly detailed.
For example, one of the images shows the central peak of Tsiolkovskiy Crater, located on the far side of the moon. A central mountain is a feature that forms in the center of larger impact craters.
The Tsiolkovskiy crater and its central peak have been photographed on other lunar missions. But the recordings were never as detailed and crisp as the images from the high-resolution camera on board Danuri.
Danuri grants a view of the Wichmann Crater
According to the South Korean space agency Korea Aerospace Research Institute (Kari), another image shows the Vallis Schrödinger valley. This is on the far side of the moon near the South Pole. The valley was named after the nearby crater Schrödinger.
And another picture shows a view of the so-called Wichmann crater. This is a small crater on the moon’s far side, named after the German astronomer Moritz Ludwig Georg Wichmann (1821 – 1859).
Images were taken by Danuri’s Lunar Terrain Imager (Luti). This is one of several technical devices on board the spacecraft.
NASA’s ShadowCam looks for water ice deposits
Another payload is the US space agency Nasa’s ShadowCam, which uses a reflection method to map regions that are in the shadows in order to search for water ice deposits.
Danuri’s work is not yet complete. The lunar probe is to take further pictures of the lunar surface, analyze them and measure the magnetic radiation and gamma radiation.
South Korea launched its first self-developed space rocket last year. In August, however, a Falcon 9 rocket from the private US space company SpaceX was used to launch Danuri into space.
