By Koh Hyunjeong

The country's first lunar orbiter Danuri has completed the world's fourth complete map of the moon's surface.

The Korea AeroSpace Administration on Aug. 5 said this in a presentation it hosted to celebrate the third anniversary of Danuri's launch into space.

The device created the map using its onboard wide-angle polarimetric camera and is in the process of making a polarization map of the lunar surface. Korea is just the fourth country to make such a map after the U.S., Japan and China.

The high-resolution camera also took images of the landing site like the lunar swirl Reiner Gamma for the lunar lander to be launched in 2032.

Launched in August 2022 and to run until 2027, Danuri from Sept. 24 will go into a "frozen orbit," which will allow it to stay in orbit for long periods without using fuel, to continue its observation mission.

hjkoh@korea.kr