Danuri (KPLO)

Danuri (a blend of 'dal' for moon and 'nurida' for enjoy) is South Korea's first deep space probe. Launched on August 4, 2022, it used a ballistic lunar transfer (BLT) via Sun-Earth L1 to conserve fuel, entering a 100-km circular polar lunar orbit in December 2022. It carries six instruments, including the Korean Lunar Terrain Imager (LUTI), a wide-angle polarimetric camera (PolCam), a magnetometer, and NASA's ShadowCam—which images shadowed polar craters using starlight and Earthshine to find exposed water ice for Artemis missions.

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Agency / Country

Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) (South Korea)

Mission Status

ORBITER

Launch / Target Year

2022

Spacecraft / Type

Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO)

Landing Site Zone

—

Surface Coordinates

N/A

Mission Imagery & Gallery

Danuri (KPLO) photograph 1: KARI — Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (Danuri) display model (KARI / Public Domain / CC) — KARI — Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (Danuri) display model (KARI / Public Domain / CC)

Primary Achievement

South Korea's first lunar mission; operates NASA ShadowCam to image permanently shadowed polar craters with 200x optical sensitivity.

Mission Objectives

Develop foundational core technologies for deep space exploration and lunar telecommunications
Generate high-resolution polarimetric and topographic maps of candidate future landing sites
Operate NASA ShadowCam to inspect permanently shadowed regions at 200 times higher sensitivity than LROC

Timeline Events

2022-08-04 — Launched from Cape Canaveral SLC-40 aboard Falcon 9 on a 4.5-month ballistic transfer.
2022-12-16 — Captured into lunar orbit after completing final lunar trajectory burn.
2022-12-28 — Achieved mission operational circular polar orbit at 100 km altitude.
2023-01-12 — ShadowCam released first stunning images of permanently shadowed interior of Shackleton crater.

Related Missions

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) (2009) · NASA
Artemis I (2022) · NASA
Chandrayaan-3 (2023) · India
Artemis II (2025) · NASA — crewed lunar flyby programme that Danuri's ShadowCam data directly supports for south pole landing site selection
Luna 25 (2023) · Russia — contemporaneous south-pole mission launched in the same era; both targeted permanently shadowed polar craters
Kaguya (SELENE) (2007) · JAXA — Japan's earlier flagship lunar orbiter, a direct scientific predecessor to Danuri's high-resolution polar mapping

Historical & Technical Sources

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