KPLO [KARI]
The KPLO (Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter) or Danuri (다누리) lunar orbiter mission is South Korea's first lunar mission. It is developed and managed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
KPLO carries an instrument suite consisting of six payloads, five from KARI and one from NASA:
The launch was planned for the end of 2020, but has been delayed to August 2022. SpaceX will launch KPLO on a Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5) from Cape Canaveral. KPLO was originally to enter a circular polar orbit around 100 km above the moon. In 2019 due to increasing mass from 550 kg to 648 kg, KARI changed the orbit to a 100 km × 300 km elliptical orbit, leading to a disagreement with NASA, as this orbit would not allow the NASA's instrument to achieve its science goals.
Nation: | South Korea |
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Type / Application: | Lunar orbiter |
Operator: | KARI |
Contractors: | KARI |
Equipment: | LUTI, PolCam, KMAG, KGRS, DTNPL, ShadowCam |
Configuration: | |
Propulsion: | 4 × 30 N monopropellant thrusters, 4 × 5 N monopropellant thrusters |
Power: | 2 deployable solar arrays, batteries |
Lifetime: | 1 year (on orbit) |
Mass: | 678 kg |
Orbit: | 100 km × 300 km, 90° lunar orbit |
Satellite | COSPAR | Date | LS | Launch Vehicle | Remarks | |
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KPLO (Danuri) | 2022-094A | 04.08.2022 | CC SLC-40 | Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5) |