Lunar Probe 'Danuri' Mission Period Extended by 2 Years

Mission Extended Until 2027 in "Lunar Frozen Orbit"
Planned Impact on the Moon in 2028

South Korea's first lunar probe, 'Danuri,' will have its mission period extended by an additional two years. This decision was made after analyzing Danuri's remaining fuel and condition.

On the afternoon of the 10th, the Korea Aerospace Administration held the 'Lunar Exploration Project Promotion Committee' meeting at the Daejeon Astronomy Research Institute and approved a proposal to extend the mission period of Danuri, South Korea's first lunar probe, by two more years to continue its exploration mission until 2027.

Lunar probe 'Danuri'. Provided by the Space Aviation Agency

Launched in August 2022, Danuri successfully completed its initially planned one-year lunar orbit mission and had its mission extended once until December this year.

The Aerospace Administration decided to further extend the mission period after gathering opinions from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Danuri's payload operation agencies, participating scientists, and analyzing the probe's remaining fuel and condition.

To maximize scientific outcomes during the extended mission period, Danuri's mission altitude will be lowered to 60 km and operated for seven months. Then, without any additional orbit adjustments, it will enter a 'lunar frozen orbit' allowing long-term orbit operation until the end of 2027. Afterwards, the altitude will be lowered to a level similar to lunar landing to test technologies necessary for lunar landing, and in March 2028, it is planned to crash into the Moon.

The lunar frozen orbit is an orbit that is naturally maintained without separate orbit adjustments. It is utilized when inserting into specific lunar orbits by exploiting the Moon's gravitational distribution characteristics. In Danuri's case, it plans to be inserted into an elliptical frozen orbit with a low altitude of 60 km and a high altitude of 200 km.

By operating at a low orbit altitude of 60 km, Danuri is expected to obtain more detailed scientific results through close observation of the lunar surface. During the subsequent frozen orbit operation, it will acquire long-term scientific data and observe temporal changes inside the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles.

Yoon Young-bin, Administrator of the Korea Aerospace Administration, stated, "Through the additional mission extension and orbit operation changes of Danuri, we plan to maximize the performance of each mission payload and operate Danuri to support the U.S. Artemis program and South Korea's lunar lander plan aiming for launch in 2032."

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