Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: KARI/Ministry of Science, ICT

Korea’s lunar orbiter, Danuri, has imaged the landing spot of India’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander/rover mission.

A newly-released image of Shiv Shakti Point, the country-labeled touchdown locale of Chandrayaan-3, has been issued by the Ministry of Science, Information and Communication Technology, and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).

Korea Moon orbiter.
Credit: KARI

To snag the shot, Korea’s robotic lunar orbiter used one of its payloads, a high-resolution camera, on August 27th from the lunar mission orbit of about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the Moon’s surface.

The image is to commemorate humanity’s first-ever lunar south pole region landing by the Chandrayaan-3 on August 23rd.

Upcoming announcements

According to the Ministry of Science/IST (MSIT), Korea’s Moon-circuiting orbiter is planned to perform various scientific and technological missions while circling the lunar mission orbit until December 2025.

These missions include capturing images of potential lunar landing sites, observation of polarized light and gamma ray for drafting a map of lunar surface elements and minerals, measurement of lunar magnetic activity that will lead to the understanding of the origin of the Moon, and validation of space internet technology.

The Ministry of Science/IST statement added that in December, MSIT and KARI plan to disclose a variety of achievements, including photos of potential lunar landing sites, five types of lunar element maps, radiological environment measurements of the Moon, and many more, in order to commemorate the 1st anniversary of Danuri’s mission to the Moon. 

Danuri is South Korea’s first lunar orbiter. The mission was launched in August 2022 and was inserted into orbit around the Moon on December 16, 2022.