"Actively Pioneer the Moon Using Danuri's Achievements"

Ministry of Science and ICT's Claims at the 2nd Space Exploration Symposium

With India becoming the third country to land on the moon with Chandrayaan 3, the global competition for lunar exploration and development is intensifying. There are calls for South Korea to actively utilize the achievements of the Danuri exploration orbiter and take the lead as a pioneering nation in lunar development.

On the 25th, the Ministry of Science and ICT held the 2nd Space Exploration Symposium at the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute in Daejeon. The Space Exploration Symposium is a forum to establish South Korea's space exploration vision and strategy by listening to various voices and discussing the scientific research and technological development needs related to space exploration from the research field.

This symposium is the second since the first one held in August under the theme "The Value of South Korea's Space Exploration." It was conducted under the theme "The Value and Strategy of South Korea's Lunar Exploration," with about 20 experts from various sectors of industry, academia, and research in the field of space exploration, including Noh Kyung-won, Director of the R&D Policy Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Last year, South Korea officially joined the ranks of lunar exploration countries with the success of Danuri. The country joined the Artemis Accords, a lunar development program led by the United States, and continues international cooperation for lunar exploration, including joint research on payloads for private lunar landers with NASA.

At the symposium, discussions were held on specific strategies such as South Korea's vision and values for lunar exploration and the key technologies to be secured through lunar exploration, aiming to expand the scope of lunar exploration based on these achievements.

The first presenter, Choi Young-jun, Principal Researcher at the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, introduced the "Derivation, Design Methods, and Procedures of Major Countries' Space Exploration Missions." He explained how NASA selects strategic missions and missions proposed by the scientific community, as well as the mission discovery methods of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Researcher Choi emphasized, "South Korea also needs to establish a roadmap that clearly sets core objectives by referring to the mission discovery methods of major countries, and communication between the scientific and engineering communities is crucial for this."

Following this, Lim Jong-bin, Team Leader at the National Space Policy Research Center, presented on "Why Do Major Countries Go to the Moon? Why Do We Go to the Moon?" He discussed the manned and unmanned lunar exploration plans and scientific and technological goals of major countries. Team Leader Lim introduced the necessity of South Korea's lunar exploration in light of the directions of other countries and emphasized the importance of lunar exploration as a key mission for realizing a future space power.

After the presentations, a lively discussion took place among experts regarding the goals of South Korea's lunar exploration, the necessity of promoting lunar exploration, and the formulation of concrete lunar exploration strategies.

Noh Kyung-won, Director of the R&D Policy Office, stated, "The United States is currently advancing the Artemis Program to send astronauts to the moon for the first time in over 50 years since the Apollo project in the 1970s. India recently became the first country to land its 'Chandrayaan 3' on the lunar south pole, making the moon a battleground for leading global space development nations." He added, "Based on the success of Danuri, we must derive creative missions and promotion strategies and pursue them from a global perspective to quickly secure our status as a leading space development nation."

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