--- title: "New Orbiter Can See Inside Moon Craters Hidden in Total Darkness" description: "South Korea's lunar orbiter has taken a fascinating image of the wall and floor of the Shackleton Crater on the shadowy far side of the Moon." date: "2023-01-15" modified: "2023-01-15" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/new-orbiter-moon-craters-hidden-total-darkness" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Moon" - "Space" tags: - "far side of the moon" - "moon" - "NASA" - "the digest" --- # New Orbiter Can See Inside Moon Craters Hidden in Total Darkness ![South Korea's lunar orbiter has taken a fascinating image of the wall and floor of the Shackleton Crater on the shadowy far side of the Moon.]() *\Image: NASA\* ## Let There Be Light South Korea's Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), dubbed Danuri, has [taken a fascinating image]() of the wall and floor of the Shackleton Crater, an area of the far side of the Moon permanently plunged into total darkness. The image shows the crater in unprecedented detail, lighting up areas that have so far resulted in almost entirely blacked out images in observations made by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, as explained in a [blog post]() by Arizona State University's Mark Robinson, the principal investigator of the orbiter's camera. The image shows an incredible amount of detail, including the trail left behind by a 16-foot boulder after rolling down the wall of the crater, as seen in the annotated image below. ![]() ## ShadowCam South Korea's orbiter launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket in August and officially entered lunar orbit in December. An extremely sensitive camera built by NASA called ShadowCam, one of six instruments attached to the orbiter, was able to light up a small portion of the Moon's shadowy far side by an astonishing degree. It was able to do so by making use of reflected light bouncing off of nearby topographical features as well as an incredibly sensitive image sensor. "The poles are in a perpetual state of dawn to dusk, with the Sun always on the horizon," Robinson writes. "As a result, depressions near the poles never receive direct solar illumination, areas known as permanently shadowed regions or PSRs." Going forward, ShadowCam will assess the terrain for NASA's upcoming Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission, according to Robinson, and will observe how it changes with time or season. **READ MORE:** [Here’s the story of a lunar image that doesn’t look remarkable, but really is]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()