S.Korean lunar orbiter sends 'Dynamite' BTS video to Earth

South Korea's unmanned space vehicle Danuri has sent texts and images from space to Earth, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced Monday. 

Danuri, also known as the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, succeeded in sending some 2,800 pieces of the Dynamite music video by K-pop boy band BTS back to Earth from 1.28 million km out in space.

The orbiter conducted two data transmission tests, on Aug. 25 and Oct. 28, from 1.21 million km and 1.28 million km from Earth, respectively, according to the ministry and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).

The orbiter uses its own space internet device, developed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI). To deal with unstable connectivity, the device splits the data and sends the signal to receivers on the ground through KARI and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

“The 3-minute 43-second music video of around 11.19 megabytes was split into some 2,800 pieces of 4-kilobyte video images,” an ETRI official explained. 

The latest test was jointly conducted by ETRI, KARI, and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). 

Danuri also shot photos of the Moon every day for a month with its high-definition camera. The photos were taken from 1.54 million km out in space.

It also succeeded in observing a gamma ray burst, which was also witnessed in the United States and Europe. 

In early October, a powerful influx of X-rays and gamma rays infiltrated the solar system, likely due to a mass explosion that occurred some 2.4 billion light years away from Earth. 

On Oct. 2, Danuri underwent a third trajectory correction maneuver and KARI confirmed on Friday that the adjustment was successful. 

The previous trajectory correction maneuvers were conducted on Aug. 7 and Sept. 2. 

Danuri was launched into a ballistic lunar transfer orbit on August 5 as planned.

When in lunar orbit, Danuri will join exploration missions being conducted by the United States, India and China.

The Korean spacecraft is equipped with a magnetometer, a gamma ray spectrometer and three cameras. 

“Danuri is on the right track to the Moon,” said Director General Kwon Hyun-joon of the Science Ministry's Space, Nuclear and Big Science Policy Bureau. “I am asking for citizens’ undivided attention and support for the orbiter to enter the lunar orbit by late December.” 

Write to Jin-Won Kim at jin1@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.