Ok Tokki and Seonnyeoho?…Nation Chooses Name for August Launch 'Lunar Probe'

The selected work includes a special opportunity to attend the launch site in Florida, USA, in August

An artist's rendering of South Korea's first lunar probe, being developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The name of South Korea's first lunar exploration satellite (orbiter), scheduled to be launched this August, will be decided through a nationwide public contest.

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute announced on the 25th that they will hold a nationwide naming contest for the lunar probe from the 26th of this month until the 28th of next month. Since 2016, South Korea has been developing a satellite to perform various missions in lunar orbit for one year and is currently conducting space environment tests. It will be launched this August aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. After a flight of about four months, it will arrive in lunar orbit in December of the same year and carry out its mission for one year in 2023.

The lunar probe is equipped with five domestically developed payloads for mission execution, as well as NASA's ShadowCam. The high-resolution camera made by KARI will scout candidate sites for South Korea's lunar lander, planned for 2030. The gamma-ray spectrometer developed by the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources will explore lunar surface resources, and the wide-field polarization camera made by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute will analyze the lunar surface terrain and particles. The space internet equipment developed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute will be installed to test deep space communication networks, and the magnetometer made by Kyung Hee University will study the origin of the Moon. NASA's ShadowCam will survey candidate sites for the U.S. manned lunar south pole landing planned for 2024. Since South Korea took its first step toward space with 'UriByeol 1' in 1992, it is now facing a historic moment 30 years later with lunar exploration.

Accordingly, the government is conducting a nationwide contest to give a fitting name to the lunar probe (orbiter) that will open the first chapter of South Korea's space exploration. Any South Korean citizen can submit a name that is fresh, easy to remember, and reflects the hope for a successful launch and the significance of South Korea's first space exploration.

Entries can be submitted via mobile or the KARI website from the 26th until 6 p.m. on the 28th of next month. After expert evaluation, one grand prize winner (Minister of Science and ICT Award), two excellence award winners (KARI President Award, each with a prize of 1 million KRW), and two encouragement award winners (KARI President Award, each with a prize of 500,000 KRW) will be selected. Additionally, 100 participants in the public preference survey will be randomly awarded gift certificates worth 10,000 KRW. The results will be announced on the KARI website at the end of April.

In particular, the grand prize winner will be given the opportunity to visit the launch site at the U.S. Space Center in Florida this August when the lunar orbiter is launched, or receive a cash prize of 3 million KRW. The winning name will also be used as the official name of the lunar orbiter.

Kwon Hyun-jun, Director of the Large-scale Public Research Policy Division at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "If the lunar orbiter succeeds, South Korea will become the seventh country in the world to explore the Moon, taking its first step in the history of space exploration," and added, "We ask for great interest and participation in this naming contest."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.