(ORDO NEWS) — The Shackleton Crater at the Moon‘s south pole is one of NASA‘s shortlisted sites for exploration for future Artemis missions.
But because craters at the lunar poles have areas that are constantly in shadow, we don’t know for sure what’s inside. However, a new spacecraft with a specialized instrument is about to change that.
ShadowCam is one of six science instruments aboard Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter, which launched in August 2022 and entered lunar orbit last December.
ShadowCam’s mission is to look inside these dark craters and pinpoint exactly what’s inside.
The ShadowCam instrument has been in health check mode since the spacecraft entered lunar orbit.
During the test, the instrument took dozens of photographs of the Moon’s polar regions, including an image of Shackleton Crater.
Above you can see the image comparison between Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (left) and ShadowCam (right).
The photos show the same region inside Shackleton. Images from the new camera show much more detail inside the crater.
ShadowCam was developed by researchers at Arizona State University and Malin Space Science Systems. This is NASA’s contribution to the Danuri mission.
The camera is based on the incredibly powerful Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter cameras, but the ShadowCam is 200 times more light sensitive, resulting in high resolution and signal to noise ratio images.
ShadowCam will capture detailed images in permanently shadowed areas using dim secondary light that reflects off nearby geological features.
After a validation and calibration period due to end by the end of February 2023, ShadowCam will begin its shadowed area imaging campaign.
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