Taiwan's first lunar mission successfully launched

Taipei, Jan. 16 (CNA) Taiwan's National Central University (NCU) announced the successful launch of the country's first lunar mission on Wednesday (Taipei time), as its Deep Space Radiation Probe (DSRP) was carried into space and expected to land on the moon in four months.

The DSRP was aboard the lunar lander HAKUTO-R Mission 2 developed by ispace, a Japanese lunar exploration company, and launched from Florida, the United States at 2:11 p.m. Wednesday via the U.S. space technology company SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, NCU said in a statement.

One hour and 32 minutes after takeoff, the lunar lander separated from the launch vehicle.

The DSRP is scheduled to begin operation 36 hours after the launch and NCU's team is set to receive and analyze the data it collects, NCU added.

Featuring the emblem of NCU and the words "Made in Taiwan" on its lower-left corner, the DSRP was Taiwan's first domestically-built scientific payload for a lunar mission and the first to leave low Earth orbit (LEO), which extends to an altitude of 2,000 kilometers, NCU noted.

The DSRP, independently developed by faculty and students of NCU's Department of Space Science and Engineering, weighs only 399 grams but is capable of withstanding stress 33 times its weight and operating under radiation doses exceeding 10 kRads, said Loren Chang (張起維), chair of the department that is leading the lunar mission.

"This project kicked off in 2022 and we went through five different revisions before we got to the version that we felt comfortable watching," Chang told CNA in a phone interview.

The rugged design of the DSRP was necessary as the probe would be traveling to deep space -- defined by Chang's team as regions outside of LEO -- where the earth's magnetic shield is much weaker, exposing the probe to harsher radiation conditions that could affect technological products, he said.

Additionally, landing on the moon may involve "strong shocks," which would require a robust structure, Chang added.

The mission is aimed at measuring the expected radiation dose between the earth and the moon, as well as on the lunar surface, and understanding the radiation-caused anomalies of electronics commonly used on board a spacecraft, he said.

"By understanding the radiation dose, we can better prepare for missions to the moon and to deep space with human beings," he added.

Asked how he and his team felt after the successful launch, Chang said that they were all "very relieved" as the launch occurred with no delays or cancellations, which are common.

There were several critical stages during a launch, including reaching maximum dynamic pressure and the separation of the spacecraft from the launch vehicle, he said.

"These all went off without a hitch, so we're very, very relieved," he said.

After the successful launch, the lunar lander, carrying the DSRP, will take a low-energy trajectory to gradually approach the moon, requiring around four months to cover the approximately 400,000 kilometers between the earth and the moon, he said.