The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT, Minister: Lee Jong-Ho), the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI, President: Lee Sang-Ryool), and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI, president: Kim Myung-Joon) announced that Danuri successfully transmitted video and image data from outer space.
The DTNPL, Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network Payload, was loaded to verify data transmission in space, where, unlike on earth, network is delayed or disrupted frequently. ETRI conducted two verification tests of the DTNPL on August 25 and on October 28 together with KARI and NASA JPL, and the data transmission was successful. The result has great meaning in that the test was conducted at a distance more than three times longer than mission purpose.
MSIT and KARI unveiled photos of the earth and the moon’s orbit taken by Danuri. Danuri has been taking photos of the moon’s revolution since September 15 with the high-resolution camera developed by KARI. On September 24, Danuri took 15 photos to vividly capture the moment the moon passes the earth. While the earth-moon photo unveiled on August only showed a brief “moment”, the images presented this time captured the “process” of the moon’s revolution.
The KPLO Gamma Ray Spectrometer (KGRS) successfully observed the explosion of gamma ray, generated by the black hole. The gamma ray explosion was also observed in the U.S. and Europe. It was a substantial observation in a sense that it was the first observed gamma ray explosion related to the beginning of the black hole.
As of November 7, Danuri is located at approximately 1.05 million km away from the earth, and approaching the moon at the speed of 0.54 km/s. Danuri conducted the third Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) on November 2 to reduce errors in the route. After tracing and analysing, KARI confirmed that the TCM was conducted successfully. By December 17, Danuri will travel approximately six million km more to reach the lunar orbit, and slow down to enter the target orbit. From January 2023, Danuri will conduct science technology missions for one year, while orbiting 100km above the surface of the moon.
Director-General Kwon Hyun-Joon of Space and Big Science Policy Division of MSIT said “Danuri is navigating as planned toward the moon.” He asked for attention and support from the public so that Danuri can successfully start the new year at the moon.
The video and images sent from Danuri can be found at official Danuri website (www.kari.re.kr/kplo).
For further information, please contact the Public Relations Division (Phone: +82-44-202-4034, E-mail: msitpress@korea.kr) of the Ministry of Science and ICT.
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