Academic News
As a new wave of lunar exploration heats up worldwide, National Central University of Taiwan teamed up with the Japanese startup space company ispace, inc to participate in their Mission 2. This mission led to the creation of Taiwan's first Deep Space Radiation Probe (DSRP). After more than four months of flight, on the early morning of June 6, it attempted a landing mission near the lunar north pole in the Mare Frigoris region. Although the lunar lander did not manage a soft landing, Taiwan’s first involvement in an international lunar mission and its first flight beyond low Earth orbit to return observational data marks a significant milestone for Taiwan's space technology development.
The DSRP (Deep Space Radiation Probe) was developed by NCU's Department of Space Science and Engineering and the NCU Center for Astronautical Physics and Engineering. The device is capable of detecting radiation environments between Earth and the Moon, as well as the surface of the Moon. It was successfully launched on January 15 this year onboard ispace’s lunar lander "RESILIENCE" and transmitted its first batch of scientific data within 36 hours. The probe, aboard the lunar lander entered a low-energy transfer orbit before the lunar landing and continually set new records for Taiwan’s deep space flight, sending back valuable space radiation observation data.
According to Professor Loren Chang, Chair of the Department of Space Science and Engineering at NCU, the DSRP has been operational since its launch, successfully measuring space radiation environments between Earth and the Moon, beyond the Moon 1.1 million kilometers away from Earth, and along the lunar orbit. It became Taiwan’s farthest-flying scientific payload and transmitted high-value scientific data, validating the capability of Taiwan’s space electronics to withstand harsh space conditions and serving as a reference for future exploration systems. Overall, the DSRP mission was highly successful, establishing unprecedented capabilities.
Professor Loren Chang further pointed out that the mission fully demonstrated the "Resilience" spirit of the scientific team.The development of DSRP went through five versions, and the team had to overcome extreme temperature fluctuations, cosmic radiation, and deep space communication challenges. To ensure seamless integration with the Japanese mission, the NCU team traveled to Japan multiple times to work alongside ispace engineers to test and verify the system, learning deep space exploration system development experience and demonstrating high levels of professionalism and teamwork.
For Taiwan, this is not only an academic achievement but also brings new opportunities for the country's space technology industry. Through this invaluable experience, NCU successfully trained a group of young scientists and advanced the self-developed scientific payload into the deep space domain. This achievement proves Taiwan’s ability to design and develop deep space payloads and demonstrates the strong potential for space science development in the future. Through this precious experience, NCU has successfully cultivated a new generation of young scientific talents, advancing its self-developed scientific payload into the deep space domain.
