Korea Pathfinder, South Korea’s first Moon mission

1. KPLO have two cameras, one of which will image the Moon’s surface at a high resolution of 2.5 meters per pixel.
2. Wide-angle polarimetric camera, can determine the type of surface materials based on the way light reflects and scatters off them.
3. Gamma-ray spectrometer, which will look at highly energetic gamma rays released from the Moon.
4. A magnetometer - The Mo.on has lost its global magnetic field, by measuring their weak magnetic fields from orbit, KPLO will help us understand the extent of protection they offer from harmful space radiation, and the nature of the Moon’s leftover magnetic areas.

ShadowCam’s camera is at least 200 times more sensitive than the one on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This will allow it to see a shadowed region on the Moon as if it was sunlit!

ShadowCam will map the terrain inside permanently shadowed regions with a very high resolution, and help locate their water ice deposits and other such volatile resources based on how they reflect light.

ShadowCam isn’t the only NASA contribution to KPLO.

In March 2021, NASA selected nine scientists to join KPLO’s science team to help enhance the mission’s scientific output.

NASA and South Korea will also test a kind of an interplanetary internet on KPLO, which should be resistant to communications disruptions.

NASA is also providing technical assistance on mission design, deep space communications, and navigation technologies.

The KPLO mission comprises the first phase of South Korea’s lunar exploration program.

In the second phase, they plan to launch another lunar orbiter, a lander, and a rover.

In March 2021, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the robotic lunar lander will launch on an indigenously developed rocket before 2030.