“If you don’t look carefully, you might not be able to see it,” Dr. Lee said.
Jean-Pierre Williams, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and another co-scientist on the Danuri mission hope to produce detailed maps of the crater’s temperature by combining ShadowCam images with data collected by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
NASA’s orbiter, which has been studying the Moon since 2009, carries an instrument that records lunar surface temperatures. But these measurements are spread over a fairly large area, about 900 feet wide. ShadowCam has a resolution of approximately 5 feet per pixel. Thus, ShadowCam images used with computer models can allow differences in surface temperatures to be derived.
“Using this data we can determine local and seasonal temperatures,” Dr Williams said. This, in turn, could help scientists understand the stability of water ice and carbon dioxide in the crater.
Researchers will have to wait a few months for the science to begin. The spacecraft is taking a long, energy-efficient route to the Moon. It first heads toward the sun, then circles it to be captured in a lunar orbit on December 16. This “ballistic trajectory” takes longer, but doesn’t require firing a big engine to slow the spacecraft down when it reaches the Moon.
South Korea has an extensive military missile program. It has placed several Earth observation and communications satellites into low-Earth orbit since it was first launched in 1992. It is expanding local rocket launch capabilities so that future missions do not have to rely on SpaceX or from other countries, to go to space. In June, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute managed to put several satellites into orbit with the second trip of Nouri, its homegrown missile.
“We will do challenging projects such as landing on the moon and exploring asteroids,” said Mr. Kwon.
Jin Yoo Young contributed reporting from Seoul.
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