Shooting for the Moon: The KPLO Launch and Hanwha

The Moon, Earth’s closest celestial body, has captured the curiosity of humans and scientists alike for many years. Since the first humans stepped foot on the Moon in July of 1969 during NASA’s Apollo 11 moon landing, nations around the world have tried to reach the Moon.

How many times have we been to the Moon? While it differs for each nation — the U.S. has conducted a total of 30 missions while Japan has completed two and India just one — a total of six countries have been to or orbited the Moon since the space race began in the 1950s. During this time, the U.S. and the USSR competed to be the first nation to conquer outer space. However, after the U.S.’s successful Apollo 11 moon landing, public support for lunar missions diminished due to high costs, societal problems such as the Vietnam War and growing environmental concerns.

Fast forward to the present, more than 50 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing. There has been a resurgence of lunar missions around the world. Currently, seven missions from various countries are set to take place within the next year. Each nation has its own goals for space exploration, many of which go far beyond simply exploring the Moon. They include robotic missions to asteroids, exploration of Mars and its moons, and sending spacecraft to Jupiter. But before humanity can venture further into outer space, lunar missions are a crucial step to pave the way for missions to Mars and beyond.

South Korea, too, is contributing to this effort through its first lunar mission: The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter program. The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, or KPLO for short, was launched at 8:08 a.m. on August 5, 2022 KST (7:08 p.m. August 4 EDT), with multiple ambitious goals. These include conducting a variety of scientific investigations, demonstrating space internet and more. If successful, the KPLO will make South Korea just the seventh nation to go to the Moon. Cited as one of Nature’s science events to watch for in 2022, the KPLO is another historic moment in South Korea’s aerospace history and Hanwha is proud to be part of it.

On top of the KPLO program, Hanwha has participated in a number of the nation’s aerospace accomplishments, from helping develop the propulsion system for the Arirang 1 to its role in developing the recently launched Nuri-ho rocket. Since South Korea’s space exploration beginnings, Hanwha has been there to aid along the way. The KPLO is South Korea’s next step towards the stars. Read on to learn about how the historic KPLO project was developed through a collaboration between NASA, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Hanwha and more.

While outer space is filled with unknown variables and challenges for humans, the KPLO was built to take them on.

The KPLO is a 678 kg (1495 lb) cubic-shaped spacecraft containing two solar arrays, communications antennae and six payloads. Also known as “Danuri,” a combination of the Korean words dal (moon) and nuri (enjoy), the probe was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and aims to reach the Moon by December of this year. The length of time it will take Danuri to reach the Moon begs the question: how long does it take to get to the Moon? The shortest time is about three days, but this depends entirely on the trajectory taken. Danuri will use the ballistic lunar transfer trajectory (BLT), which will take longer but save energy in the process. Once it arrives at the Moon, the probe will orbit at an altitude of 100 km (about 62 miles) above the surface.

The design of the KPLO is the product of collaboration between KARI, Hanwha and others. The orbiter’s large body, measuring 2.29 m (nearly 7 ft 6 in) in length, was developed by KARI, and Hanwha Corporation provided the propulsion system inside. The KPLO also has a 30N class large-capacity high-thrust propulsion system needed to push it into lunar orbit. The KPLO’s single satellite propulsion unit, provided by Hanwha Corporation, was first utilized in the development of the Arirang 2 satellite in the 1990s and will also be used in next-generation low-orbit satellites.

KPLO’s liquid propulsion system, which allows the lunar probe to maintain a steady orbit and position and helps it land safely, was also developed through a collaboration between Hanwha Corporation and others. This technology was selected as one of Korea’s top 10 technologies in 2021 and is designed to help KPLO reach its target orbit safely and successfully.

The KPLO carries six unique scientific instruments to collect new data from the surface of the Moon. The KPLO has two indigenously built cameras: The Lunar Terrain Imager (LUTI) and a wide-angle polarimetric camera (PolCam). The parts for LUTI, which will take pictures of the Moon’s surface at a high-resolution of 2.5 meters per pixel, were supplied by Hanwha Systems, and the camera was developed through a collaboration of i3Systems, DACC-Aerospace Co., LTD and others. The PolCam has the potential to provide the first map of the Moon using polarized light, which has never been done for any planets or moons.

The KPLO is also equipped with a gamma-ray spectrometer (KGRS), which will analyze gamma rays released from the Moon, and a Magnetometer (KMAG), used to analyze magnetic “swirls” on the Moon to determine how it is protected from space radiation.

Perhaps most notably, Danuri is equipped with the ShadowCam, a camera provided by NASA that has been modified to be 200 times more sensitive than the original Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) it is based on. The ShadowCam’s high resolution will help to map the shadow regions and locate water ice deposits and other resources. If successful, the South Korean KPLO mission will provide the first-ever high-resolution photographs of permanently dark areas of the Moon. These photographs could detect seasonal changes of the permanently shadowed regions (PSR) to measure the terrain inside craters, map albedo patterns of the PSR and interpret their nature, and more.

Finally, in an attempt to conduct interplanetary internet communication, KPLO is equipped with a Disruption Tolerant Network Experiment Payload (DTNPL). When testing the connection, KPLO plans to stream the BTS song “Dynamite,” an homage to the South Korean group making history both on Earth and soon in space.

Despite the challenges that we have endured in the past, lunar exploration and, more broadly, space exploration seem within our reach now more than ever. We are entering the “New Space Age,” an era where limits are challenged and history is written. With the cooperation of nations and companies around the world, we can further our understanding of space and explore the galaxy beyond our wildest imaginations. Hanwha remains committed to partnering with companies and organizations to continue developing technology for space exploration, aiming to reach the stars someday.