“Many problems arose while developing Danuri, and I think the experience of solving those problems will give me the confidence that I can do it when taking on new challenges.”
In a documentary commemorating the first anniversary of the orbital operation of the lunar probe ‘Danuri’ released by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute on the 1st, Cho Young-ho, senior researcher at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, who is in charge of Danuri mission operation, says this. On this day, the Korean Air Research Institute uploaded a documentary titled ‘The story of researchers who surpassed the impossible and became the world’s 7th country to explore the moon’ on its official YouTube channel.
The scene of Danuri being launched in the documentary ‘Pioneers Open the Moon’./Capture from Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s official channel.
The approximately 35-minute documentary contains the trials that occurred during the development of Danuri and the process of overcoming them and reaching success. In addition to the 15 domestic researchers who participated in the development of Danuri, the voices of two National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) experts who are using Danuri are also included.
Danuri experienced many ups and downs during the development process. The most representative issue that appeared at the beginning of the documentary was the weight issue. In November 2019, it was determined that Danuri would not be able to go to the moon using the previously planned orbit due to a lack of onboard fuel. Researchers worked hard to find a way to reduce the weight of the probe as much as possible and save fuel. In an internal survey of AARI employees at the time, more than 85% of respondents thought the mission would fail.
The researchers decided to challenge the ballistic lunar transfer method (BLT, a method of entering the lunar orbit using the gravity of the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun), which has few precedents. In the documentary, Senior Researcher Song Young-joo, who was in charge of trajectory design at the time, remembered, “Trajectory design is usually done over three years, but at the time, I felt a lot of pressure because I had to come up with an answer in just seven months.” Although it was our first challenge, we reached a conclusion through endless efforts, and NASA agreed, saying, ‘We also came to the same conclusion.’ Afterwards, in our own survey conducted in April of the following year, the percentage of responses that said ‘it will be successful’ was 85%.
Appearance of the Aerospace Research Institute researchers after the launch of Danuri/Capture from the Aerospace Research Institute’s official YouTube channel
The documentary vividly captures the twists and turns experienced during transportation to the launch site in Florida, USA, even after development was completed, and the tense moment when the first communication failed after launch.
Meanwhile, more than a year after entering the lunar mission orbit, Danuri is still carrying out its mission by circling the lunar orbit that researchers set every morning. Since there is enough remaining fuel, the mission is scheduled to be performed for two more years until the end of 2025.
2024-01-01 03:38:11
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