First Ground Communication Complete: Satellites to Photograph the Korean Peninsula Every Afternoon [XR]

[Anchor]

Among the satellites launched by the Nuri rocket, five ultra-small cluster satellites successfully made their first communication with the ground today (the 7th). These satellites will orbit above the Korean Peninsula every day to take photos of the country.

Reporter Seo Donggyun has the details.

[Reporter]

These are the five cluster satellites launched by the Nuri rocket.

All five orbit the Earth in the same trajectory, flying in a sun-synchronous orbit where the orbital plane maintains a constant angle with the sun.

Because the angle with the sun does not change, specific regions can be photographed under the exact same light reflection conditions every time.

These five satellites travel in what is called the "afternoon orbit," allowing them to photograph South Korea in the afternoon.

They observe the Korean Peninsula and surrounding waters at intervals of about 20 minutes.

When five more cluster satellites are added during the sixth launch next year, a total of ten satellites—split evenly between morning and afternoon orbits—will be able to observe the Korean Peninsula more than three times a day.

The first unit, launched as a prototype two years ago, is already orbiting in the morning, while the verification unit launched early this year is orbiting in the afternoon to observe various parts of the world.

Looking at photos sent back by the first unit, the red roof and logo of Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi are clearly visible, and even parking lines can be seen in a photo of Qatar.

[Kim Jin-hee / Head of Satellite Division, Korea AeroSpace Administration: High-resolution satellites can only capture an area of about 10 kilometers. But if there are multiple satellites, we can capture a wide variety of wide areas.]

The cube satellites will also carry out their respective space missions.

Space Lintech's cube satellite will embark on an experiment to grow pharmaceutical crystals in space—something that is difficult to make uniformly on the ground due to gravity.

[Kim Byung-ho / Head of Space Medicine Business Division, Space Lintech: If we can find a more stable structure and different crystal form and make it stable, it offers better portability and reduced toxicity.]

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute has taken SK Hynix semiconductors into space to verify their performance in a space radiation-exposed environment.

[Kim Sang-gu / Principal Researcher, Korea Aerospace Research Institute: If we localize space components, we will be in a situation where we can procure parts cheaper and faster.]

In addition, the cube satellites will carry out space missions ranging from 3 months to 2 years each, including observing the Earth's magnetic field.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Reported by Choi Ho-jun and Yang Ji-hun | Video Editing by Oh Young-taek | Producers: Kim Do-gyun and Han Seung-ho | XR: Choi Jae-young and Jeon Yu-geun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.