South Korea unveiled the designs of its planned moon lander. As one of many efforts of President Park Geun-hye to revamp their aerospace industry, it is receiving ample support from NASA.
Pres. Park has taken upon himself since he became president in January to push for the mission to progress faster and target the moon lander’s launch date earlier to 2020 instead of the previous target year of 2025.
The aerospace industry represented by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) began its lunar research in 2010 and so far had spent 10 billion Korean won ($9.3 million). By 2020, local officials are approximating that expenses would be around 700 billion Korean won. Up to this point, the project has encountered several challenges such as the rocket’s propulsion development and system navigation and control.
In January, the country was able to make a successful launch of its first space rocket named Naro-1 on its third shot. That was a month before North Korea successfully commenced its Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite and Unha-3 rocket.
The moon lander design presented in October 22 will be launched unmanned on the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-2 rocket. It will traverse the moon’s surface carrying a 10-15-kilogram moon rover designed to look for rare minerals as it roams the lunar surface. On board the rocket is another programmed orbiter which will scope above the moon’s landscape from about 100 km high.
One of KARI’s officers expressed that the space institution is looking forward to the mission’s advancement with NASA’s aid. A partnership with NASA is seen to facilitate the growth of personnel and the institution’s overall space capabilities.
KARI’s lunar exploration and research director Ju Gwang-Hyeok said, “Since we have full support from the government, NASA has expressed a much stronger will to cooperate with us.” He also said that the previous US government shutdown and NASA’s funding issues actually strengthened its partnership with KARI.
Further, the South Korean Ministry of Science shared that a collaboration of 15 government-supported research organizations headed by KARI will soon begin to develop base technologies in order aid the mission in 2014.
This story was first reported on the Nov. 13 issue of the online journal Nature.
