The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), officially called Danuri, entered into its lunar mission orbit safely — 124 km above the Moon — on December 27, 2022, making South Korea the seventh country to launch missions to the Moon. Danuri aimed to investigate the lunar geology and demonstrate space technologies while orbiting the Moon. While it focused on Earth-Moon navigation for a month-long period from January 6, it shifted its focus to a mission-optimized mode from February 4, conducting more scientific experiments and investigating the feasibility of the space internet technology. Six payloads including one invented by KAIST will be utilized for its operation until the end of 2023.  

Ten months after its successful launch, Danuri has accumulated valuable information about the Moon. With the images it collected, the KAIST Art Museum is hosting “The Spectacle of Danuri” exhibition at the Creative Learning Building (E11) from June 1 to August 31. In collaboration with Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC), the exhibition displays high-resolution pictures of the lunar surface, its craters and valleys, the Earth, and a miniature replica of Danuri. The photographs included those of the Earth taken daily from January 6 to February 4 to speculate its phase change, as well as those of famous craters such as the Tsiolkovsky Crater and the Szilard M Crater. Director of the KAIST Art Museum Hyeon-Jeong Suk highlighted that they deliberated over the arrangement of the pictures and spatial experiences to portray the voyage of Danuri vividly. “This exhibition is a platform, where all the achievements of space scientists from KAIST and KARI could be shared with the community,” she remarked. 

Dae Kwan Kim, a KAIST Aerospace Engineering alumni who played an essential role in the launch of Danuri, also participated in composing the professional contents and planning the exhibition. Kim remarked that he anticipates students to become more interested and dream about exploring deep space beyond the Moon.  

The images and real-time data from Danuri can also be freely accessed through the KARI website. The KAIST Art Museum hopes that they will be able to sublimate and unravel KAIST’s uniqueness into art and highlight the convergence of art and science throughout the campus.