KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) developed KPLO (Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter), also known as Danuri. One of the payload is PolCam (Wide-Angle Polarimetric Camera) developed by KASI (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute). It’s main objective is to investigate lunar surface based on polarimetry.

 

We were contracted to design and manufacture optical system and polarizing filters for the payload. The satellite was launched on August, 2022 and successfully performed missions.

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[Link to KASI PolCam description and payload data]

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As a spin-off project, NASA Langley Research Center and KASI are developing CubeSat with polarimeter instrument, PolCube. The payload will utilize same optical system and filters which we developed. The objective of the payload is to retrieve detailed fine-mode (pollution and smoke) and coarse-mode (sea-salt and dust) aerosol properties over the ocean for a range of light to heavy aerosol loadings using its polarimetric-imaging capability at multiple angles and wavelengths from 410 − 865 nm. The satellite is planned to be launched in 2024. 

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Same optical system was used in developing optical imaging payload, KSOI-22. The payload was on board KSAT3U which was launched on May, 2023.