1st batch of data from ongoing lunar mission arrives in Taiwan

Taipei, Jan. 22 (CNA) The first batch of data from a Taiwanese-made radiation detector has arrived after being launched into space last week, according to Taiwan's National Central University (NCU) on Wednesday.

NCU's Deep Space Radiation Probe (DSRP) was aboard the HAKUTO-R Mission 2 lunar lander developed by Japanese space exploration company ispace and launched from Florida at 1:11 a.m. Jan. 15 (U.S. time) via the U.S. space technology company SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

The DSRP is "currently operating normally" and its temperature is "within a safe range," the school said in a press release on Wednesday relating to Taiwan's first collaborative space mission.

After starting operations as scheduled 36 hours following the rocket's launch, the probe sent the data back to the research team in Taiwan.

The researchers "observed two bit flips caused by cosmic rays," NCU said, referring to two instances of radiation apparently affecting electronic systems.

According to NCU, the data showed "brilliant results," though it did not provide any other specifics on the actual data or the amount of data that was received.

The mission's primary purpose, according to NCU, is to measure ionizing radiation between the earth and the moon, as well as on the surface of the moon, which will lead to more accurate radiation-resistant designs for components in the future.

Taiwan's DSRP is one of three scientific payloads on the Japanese-made lunar lander, called Resilience, which is scheduled to land on the moon after about four months and study the lunar surface for 10 days.

"National Central University's Deep Space Radiation Detector is Taiwan's first scientific payload to leave low earth orbit, and it is setting new records for the flight distance of Taiwan's space payloads every day," according to NCU.