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Scene of receiving and playing BTS's "Dynamite" music video sent from space by Danuri. Photo by Ministry of Science and ICT

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jung-wan] South Korea's first lunar probe, 'Danuri,' has successfully transmitted data such as videos and photos back to Earth from a distance of over 1 million kilometers away.

The Ministry of Science and ICT, Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), and Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced on the 7th that Danuri successfully sent data including videos and photos from space.

The space internet payload on Danuri, which transmitted this video, was developed to verify data transmission in the space environment where communication is frequently interrupted, unlike on Earth. ETRI, together with KARI and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), conducted performance verification tests of the space internet payload twice: on August 25 (at approximately 1.21 million km distance) and October 28 (at approximately 1.28 million km distance). They also succeeded in transmitting data such as videos and photos (including BTS's "Dynamite" and photos of ETRI researchers). According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, this performance verification test is highly significant because it was conducted at a distance more than three times the mission's communication distance (approximately 380,000 km).

The Ministry of Science and ICT and KARI released photos taken by Danuri showing the Earth-Moon orbit and the Moon passing in front of the Earth. Danuri used a high-resolution camera developed by KARI to capture the Moon's orbit once daily for a month from September 15 to October 15. On September 24, it took 15 photos vividly capturing the Moon passing in front of the Earth. According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, the first Earth-Moon photo taken by Danuri on August 26 showed a single moment, but this time the photos captured the process of the Moon orbiting and passing the Earth.

A photo of the Moon passing in front of the Earth taken by Danuri. Photo by Ministry of Science and ICT

Additionally, on October 9, Danuri's gamma-ray spectrometer (developed by the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources) successfully observed a gamma-ray burst caused by the birth of a black hole. This gamma-ray burst was simultaneously observed in the United States and Europe and is the first gamma-ray burst phenomenon related to black hole formation observed by humanity.

On the morning of the 2nd, Danuri performed its third trajectory correction maneuver to adjust navigation errors between Earth and the Moon. KARI confirmed on the afternoon of the 4th, after about two days of tracking and analyzing Danuri's trajectory (from November 2 to 4), that the third trajectory correction maneuver was successfully completed.

As of the 7th, 94 days after launch, Danuri is traveling toward the Moon at a speed of 0.54 km/s, approximately 1.05 million km from Earth (with a cumulative travel distance of 2.66 million km). Danuri plans to travel about 6 million km by December 17 to reach lunar orbit, then decelerate to enter its lunar mission orbit by the end of December. From January 2023, it will orbit 100 km above the Moon in a circular orbit for one year, conducting scientific and technological missions such as landing site candidate surveys and lunar magnetic field observations.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.